
Glass JR&&2QA* 
Book j_J_Z1 



CICERO 



CICERO ./^ 

1111. / / 



IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 






QT AESTIONUM TUSCULANARUM 



LIBER 



WITH NOTES AM) AN APPENDIX. 



BY M. STUART. 

Professor of Sac. Literature in the Theol. Sem. at An,! 




ANDOVEK \ 

FLAGG, GOULD, & NEWMAN. 
1833. 



<$>* 

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t^«\ 



$* 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1833, by 

.VlAgG, GOULD, AND NEWMAN, 
in the die fit's office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



'J 



PREFACE. 



The occasion and design of publishing the little 
volumes entitled Select Classics, may be stated in a few 
words. It is customary with me, always to recommend 
to my pupils in sacred philology, the daily reading of 
some portion of a good Latin or Greek classical writer. 
This I do, in order that they may increase their know- 
ledge of the ancient languages, and be able to judge of 
the difference between classical idioms and those of the 
Scriptures. But ihis is not my only motive. Believing 
that the study of the best Latin and Greek authors is 
very important to the cultivation of an improved taste 
in literature, and to the acquisition of tact and ability 
in criticism and in writing, I feel it to be a matter of 
serious consequence, that every theological student 
should devote some portion of his time to this employ- 
ment. 

But what shall he read ? Merely to repeat the read- 
ing of college books, would be unattractive to most 
students. And if they are to extend it beyond these 
limits, what shall be selected ? A question of more 
difficulty to the young student, (whose circle of ac- 
quaintance with the classics is generally somewhat 
narrow), than every one will be apt to imagine. And 
even after he has made his choice, how shall he obtain 
the pieces which he desires? They appear, more usu- 
ally, only in the large collections; which he cannot 
afford to purchase. Or if separately printed, they are 
not published, perhaps, in our country; or if they are> 
most of them are merely copies of European editions, 
which (the school-books excepted) are principally char- 
acterized by notes on the various readings of the text; 
in which lie, who studies for profit and pleasure, can 
feel but little if any interest. Grammarians and crit- 
ical editors alone can profit much by these. But the 



IV PREFACE. 

great mass of readers belong to neither of these classes. 
Consequently, they need an exegetical commentary. 
They are, and ought to be, much more interested to 
know what the text in general means, than to know 
how a solitary word or phrase, which now and then 
occurs, is to be read. 

The Select Classics which I now publish, are intend- 
ed wholly for this latter class of readers. In particular 
are the} 7 designed for young readers in our country, 
who need to be allured and guided and encouraged, 
with respect to classical study. 

The plan which I have adopted, supersedes the ne- 
cessity of printing a continuous translation. Every 
passage, in which I have supposed that there could be 
any difficulty, the student will find translated or ex- 
plained in the notes ; and some perhaps will even won- 
der, that I have done so much in this way, rather than 
so little. None, I would hope, will have reason to 
complain, that the meaning of the author is not made 
sufficiently evident; so far, at least, as I am able to 
understand and explain it. That I have always under- 
stood it rightly, I would not venture to assert. I can 
only say, that I have devoted to the study of it, as much 
time as I could possibly spare from my other duties and 
studies ; and that I indulge the hope, that I shall not 
often mislead the student. 

If it should be asked, why I have been so liberal in 
my biographical and historical notes and explanations ; 
my answer is, that I have adopted this course for sev- 
eral reasons. Most readers have not the sources at 
hand, from which I have drawn more or less of them. 
Many of these sources are in languages, which the stu- 
dents in general of our country do not understand. 
And even in cases where the reader may have access 
to these sources, and be able to draw from them, it is not 
often the case, when he sits down to spend a few leisure 
moments in reading a classic, that he feels inclined to 
load his table with biographical, geographical, chrono- 
logical, and historical works, (not to mention many 
other helps), in order that he may proceed with a due 
understanding of his author. 

It falls, moreover, within the special design of the 



PREFACE. V 

present publication, to render classical reading easy, 
and attractive, and profitable. Whatever may bo said 
as to the expediency of this, with reference to students 
who are pursuing classical studies as a daily business, 
and whose strength may sometimes be put to the trial 
by the reading of text without note or comment; such 
a principle is not applicable to the present case. I pub- 
lish these volumes for the aid of those, who wish to re- 
new their acquaintance with the classics, or to increase 
their knowledge of them, with as little expense of time 
and money as possible. To purchase all the helps, 
which I have made use of for their benefit, would be 
expensive ; to study them, would require time and 
pains which many will hardly deem themselves able to 
spare. 

It has been my endeavour, in the notes and appendix 
to this work, to point out in what manner we should 
read the Greek and Roman writers in order truly to 
profit by them. If I have succeeded in the attempt, it 
may encourage others to rise up as editors among us, 
in the like way. 

In the text of the present volume, I have not impli- 
citly followed any one edition. I have had before me 
the editions of Ernesti, of Rath, of Nobbe,and of Carey; 
all recent editors; the three last, I believe, still living. 
In doubtful cases I have selected that which seemed to 
me the most probable reading ; and in this, I have some- 
times agreed with one, and sometimes another, of these 
editors. As we have no manuscripts in this country from 
which a new edition of the text could be formed, I have 
done all in respect to it, that the nature of the case 
seemed to admit. From none of these editions have 
I derived any exegetical aid, which is worthy of being 
mentioned. Rath's book is a large one, and filled with 
notes ; but almost all of them are occupied with specu- 
lations concerning the state of the text. 

The punctuation, I may say, is wholly my own. I 
found none with which I was satisfied. Carey's I re- 
gard as the best; and Nobbe's stands next; while that 
of Ernesti often and almost of necessity obscures the 
meaning of the text; at least it does so for me. By 
careful and diligent attention to the punctuation, L 



VI PREFACE. 

would hope that I have made the sense more evident 
to the reader, in many passages, than it is in the com- 
mon editions. 

I was induced to engage in the present work, by the 
express wish of my pupils, during the past year. My 
earnest hope and desire are, that thej', and others asso- 
ciated with them, may be profited by the study of it; as 
it is specially designed fortheological students. I would 
indulge the hope, also, that others who pursue classical 
study, may take an interest in it ; for I can scarcely 
conceive of a topic more interesting, in a moral and 
religious point of view, than the knowledge of what the 
highest efforts of human reason could without revela- 
tion and of themselves do, in developing the doctrine of 
the soul's immortality. 

My present design is, to publish a second volume in 
connexion with this, which is to consist of Plato's 
Fhaedo, i. e. his treatise on the immortality of the soul. 
The present volume is a specimen of the manner which 
I mean to pursue, in respect to commentary, and to the 
critical examination of the author's arguments. 

In the present volume, I have adapted the sections 
(marked §) to the purpose of discriminating the larger 
transitions of the author's discourse. I found these so 
discrepant from each other in my different editions, and 
oftentimes so much at variance with what seemed to 
me the most desirable division of the text, that, after 
consideration, I was induced to abandon the plan of fol- 
lowing any one of them, and to mark the sections anew. 
Another object obtained by marking them, is, to facili- 
tate references to the text, in the notes and elsewhere. 

I have also introduced breaks or paragraphs in many 
places of the text, where most editions make none. 
Ernesti has printed an almost unbroken text ; by which 
the reader is often perplexed, and always fatigued. 

I have also ventured to go a step further than any of I 
the editions which I have seen, viz., to print the colloquy [ 
in the manner of a dialogue. Every reader will, I trust, 
spontaneously give his assent to this. 

In those cases where I have supposed there could be I 
any doubt, in the mind of the reader, with regard to I 
the Ablative case of the first declension, as distinguish- 



PREFACE. Vli 

iominative, I have marked the Ablative 
in t!.i ty. Carey marks it always ; the German 

editors, never. It is unnecessary to mark it for the 
practised reader; but it is convenient for the unprac- 
one to have it marked in doubtful cases. I have 
marked such cases ; but I have come, in the course of 
printing, and when it was too late to retrace my steps, 
entire conviction, that the method of Carey is 
the best. 

Here and there I have printed a whole sentence in 
capitals. My object is, to render conspicuous to the eye, 
and easy to be found, such sentences as are extraordi- 
nary for the sentiment which they contain, or as will 
serve for significant mottos in writing, or maxims in 
conversation. 

I could never be induced, placed in such circum- 
stances as I am at present, to give my time and attention 
to the exegesis of any heathen author, were I not con- 
vinced that the study of such authors is important to the 
interpreter of the sacred writings. It is because of the 
bearing which such study has on the interpretation of 
the Scriptures, and because of the deeply interesting 
nature of the subjects discussed in the selection which 
I have made, that I feel myself to be within the proper 
sphere of my duty, while engaged in this work. 

My reason for publishing my notes and strictures in 
English, is the same which induces almost all the lexi- 
cographers of Greek and Latin, at the present day, to 
publish their explanations in their own vernacular 
language. He who expects to aid the young reader, 
must make it not only possible for him to understand 
his explanations, but a matter of course that they should 
be understood without much effort or study. Where is 
to be the end of interpretation, if each writer who at- 
tempts to explain, is as difficult to be understood, as 
the original on which he comments? My object would 
be entirely defeated, by pursuing such a course. 

Should this work meet with a favourable reception, I 
would hope to see some other individual proceed farther 
in the execution of the plan now commenced. With 
the little volume from Plato, should my life be spared 
to finish it, I must bid adieu to this kind of labour. 



VU PREFACE. 

My present duties and station call for all my attention 
in another way; and the guardians and friends of the 
Seminary with which I am connected, expect, and have 
a right to expect, that I should obey the call. Most 
cheerfully shall 1 do it, if it may please a kind Provi- 
dence to give me ability. Thus far, all the attention I 
have bestowed on the little volumes of Select Classics, 
has been of direct and immediate advantage to my exe- 
getical studies. I cannot, therefore, but think the time 
well spent; and especially so, if the undertaking should 
meet the public approbation so as to excite some of the 
scholars in our country to publish such editions of the 
classics, as may be the real means of literary and moral 
improvement. We have been, long enough, shut up to 
the European method. More pieces which are entire^ 
(only such should be published for the purposes of read- 
ing), from Plato, Xenophon, and other Greek writers, of 
a moral and highly interesting nature ; and also like 
pieces from the Latin ones; might easily be selected. 
To all these I could wish to see added, Selections from 
the Latin and Greek Christian Fathers ; writers now un- 
known, except by name, to most of our students ; but 
deserving of more attention than our country has yet 
given them. How can a system of education be truly 
Christian and liberal, which entirely excludes them ? 

How soon the volume containing the Phaedo will 
follow, I cannot definitely state at present. I find the 
editing of it to be a serious business indeed, as it ren- 
ders a knowledge of the Platonic system absolutely ne- 
cessary, in order to give the requisite explanations. No 
one of all Plato's writings, partakes more of his ideal 
philosophy than this. 

The public will not therefore expect that this volume 
should be hastily published, when they consider what 
an undertaking it is, and also that I can give but a 
very small portion of my time to the work, as my other 
duties must not in any wise be neglected. Still, I have 
advanced nearly through the commentary on the Phae- 
do, and would hope to conclude the work, during the 
winter or in the spring. 

Moses Stuart 
Andover, Jan. 1833. 



M. TULLII CICERONI8 

TUSCULANARUM QUAESTIONUM 

AD M. BRUTUM 

LIBER PRIMUS. 
DE CONTEMNENDA MORTE. 



§1. 

Cum defensionum laboribus senatoriisque mu- 
neribus, aut omnino, aut magna ex parte, essem 
aliquando liberatus, retuli me, Brute, te hortante 
maxime, ad ea studia, quae retenta animo, re- 
missa temporibus, longo intervallo intermissa re- 
vocavi. Et cum omnium artium, quae ad rectam 
vivendi viam pertinerent, ratio et disciplina stu- 
dio sapientiae, quae philosophia dicitur, con- 
tineretur; hoc mihi Latinis litteris illustrandum 
putavi. Non quia philosophia Graecis et litteris 10 
et doctoribus percipi non posset : sed meum sem- 
per judicium fuit, omnia nostros aut invenisse 
per se sapientius quam Graecos ; aut accepta ab 
illis fecisse meliora, quae quidem digna statuis- 
sent in quibus elaborarent. Nam mores et in- 
stituta vitae, resque domesticas ac familiares, nos 
profecto et melius tuemur et lautius ; rem vero 
publicam nostri majores certe melioribus tem- 
peraverunt et institutis et legibus. Quid loquar 
de re militari ? in qua cum virtute nostri mul 20 
turn valuerunt, turn plus etiam disciplina. Jam 
ilia quae natura non litteris assecuti sunt, neque 
cum Graecia neque ulla cum gente sunt confe- 
renda. Quae enim tanta gravitas, quae tanta 
constantia, magnitudo animi, probitas, fides, 
2 



14 TDSC. QUAESTIONfES I §§ 1,2* 

quae tam excellens in omni genere virtus in ullis 
fuk^ ut sit cum majoribus nostris comparanda ? 

Doctrina Graecia nos et omni litterarum gen- 
ere superabat; in quo erat faciJe vincere non 
repugnantes. Nam cum apud Graecos antiquis- 
simum sit e doctis genus poetarum, siquidem 
Homerus fuit et Hesiodus ante Romam condi- 
tam, Archilochus regnante Romulo; serius po- 
eticam nos accepimus. Annis enim fere dx 

to post Roimam conditam, Livius fabulam dedit (C. 
Claudio Caeci fllio, M. Tuditano, consulibus) 
anno ante natum Ennium, qui fuit major natu 
-quarn Plautus ; et Naevius. 

Sero igitur a nostris poetae vel cogniti vel re- 
cepti. Q-uamquam est in Originibus, solitos es- 
se in epulis canere eonvivas ad tibicinem de 
«clarorum hominum virtutibus, nonorem tamen 
huic generi non fuisse, dedarat oratio Catonis, 
in qua objecit ut probrum M. NobHiori, quod is 

20 in provioeiam poetas duxisset ; duxerat autem 
consul ille in Aetoliam, ut scimus, Ennium. Quo 
minus igitur honoris erat poetis, eo minora stu- 
*dia fuerunt ; nee tamen sic qui magnis ingeniis 
mi eo genere exstiterunt, non satis Graecorum 
gloriae responderunt. 

An censemus, si Fabio nobilissimo homini laudi 
datum esset quod pingeret, non naultos etiam 
apud nos futuros Polycletos et Parrhasios fuisse 1 

HONOS AlAT ARTES, OMNESQUE INCENDUNTUR AD 
^SSTODIA GLORIA'; JACENTQUE EA SEMPER, QUAE 
AP.UB QU©mUE IMPJ&ORANTUR. 



TUSC. QUAESTiONES 1 §§ 3, 4. 1 5 

§3. 

Summam eruditionem Graeci sitam censebant 
in nervorum vocumque cantibus. Igitur et 
Epaminondas (princeps, meo judicio, Graeciae) 
fidibus praeclare cecinisse dicitur. Themisto- 
clesque, aliquot ante annos cum in epulis recu- 
sasset lyram, habitus est indoctior. Ergo in 
Graecia musici floruerunt, discebantque id om- 
nes ; nee qui nesciebat satis excultus doctrina 
putabatur. 

In summo apud illos honore geometria fuit ; 10 
itaque nihil mathematicis illustrius. At nos 
metiendi ratiocinandique utilitate hujus artis ter- 
minavimus modum. At contra, oratorem celer- 
iter complexi sumus ; nee eum primo eruditum, 
aptum tamen ad dicendum ; post autem erudi- 
tum. Nam Galbam, Africanum, Laelium, doc- 
tos fuisse traditum est ; studiosum autem eum, 
qui iis aetate anteibat, Catonem ; post vero, Le- 
pidum, Carbonem, Gracchos^ deinde ita mag- 
nos, nostram ad aetatem, ut non multum aut ni-20 
hil omnino Graecis cederetur. 

§4. 

Philosophia jacuk usque ad hanc aetatem, nee 
ullum habuit lumen litterarum Latinarum ; quae 
illustranda, et excitanda nobis est, ut, si occupa- 
ti profuimus aliquid civibus nostris, prosimus 
etiam, si possumus, otiosi. In quo eo magis no- 
bis est elaborandum, quod multi jam esse Latini 
J-ibri dicuntur scripti inconsiderate, -ab optimis 
illis quidem viris, sed non satis eruditis. 

Fieri autem potest, ut recte quis sentiat, 3$ 
it id quod sentit polite eloqui non po^sit^' 



16 TUSC. quaestiones : §§4, 5. 

sed mandare quemquam litteris cogitationes su- 
as, qui eas nee disponere nee illustrare possit, 
nee delectatione aliqua allicere lectorem, homi- 
nis est intemperanter abutentis et otio et litteris. 
Itaque suos libros ipsi legunt cum suis ; nee quis- 
quam attingit, praeter eos qui eandera licen- 
tiam scribendi sibi permitti volunt. Quare si 
aliquid oratoriaelaudi nostra attulimusindustria, 
multo studiosius philosophiae fontes aperiemus, 
10 e quibus etiam ilia manabant. 

§5. 

Sed ut Aristoteles, vir suramo ingenio, scien- 
tiae copia, cum motus esset Isocratis rhetoris 
gloria, docere etiam coepit adolescentes dicere, 
et prudentiam cum eloquentia jungere ; sic no- 
bis placet, nee pristinum dicendi studium depo- 
nere, et in hac majore et uberiore arte versari. 
Hanc enim perfectam philosophiam semper 
judicavi, quae de maximis qijaestionibus 
copiose posset ornateque dicere ; in quam 

20 exercitationem ita nos studiose operam dedimus, 
ut jam etiam scholas, Graecorum more, habere 
auderemus ; ut nuper, tuum post discessum, in 
Tusculano, cum essent plures mecum familiares, 
tentavi quid in eo genere possem. Ut enim an- 
tea declamitabam causas, quod nemo me diutius 
fecit ; sic haec nunc mihi senilis est declamatio. 
Ponere jubebam de quo quisaudire vellet; ad 
id, aut sedens aut ambulans, disputabam. Ita- 
que dierum quinque scholas, ut Graeci appel- 

30 lant, in totidem libros contuli. Fiebat autem ita, 
ut cum is qui audire vellet dixisset quid sibi vi- 
deretur, turn ego contra dicerem. Haec est enim, 



TUSC. quaestioxes : §§ 5,6. 17 

ut scis, vetus et Socratica ratio contra alte- 
rius opinionem disserendi ; nam ita facillime, 
quid verisi mtllimum esset, inveniri posse Socra- 
tes arbitrabatur. Sed quo commodius disputa- 
tiones nostrae expiicentur, sic eas exponam 
quasi agatur res, non quasi narretur. Ergo ita 
nascetur exordium. 

§6. 

A. Malum mihi videtur esse mors. 

31. Iisne qui mortui sunt, an iis quibus mo- 
riendum est ? 10 

A. Utrisque. 

3T. Est miserum, igitur, quoniam malum. 

A. Certe. 

31. Ergo et ii quibus even it jam ut more- 
rentur, et ii quibus eventurum est, miseri. 

A. Mihi ita videtur. 

31. Nemo ergo non miser. 

A. Prorsus nemo. 

31. Et quidem, si tibi constare vis, omnes 
quicunque nati sunt eruntve, non solum miseri, 20 
sed etiam semper miseri. Nam si solos eos di- 
ceres miseros quibus moriendum esset, neminem 
tu quidem eorum qui viverent, exciperes ; mo- 
rienchm est enim omnibus : esset tamen mise- 
riae finis in morte. Quoniam autem etiam mor- 
tui miseri sunt, in miseriam nascimur sempiter- 
nam. Necesse est enim miseros esse eos, qui 
centum millibus annorum ante occiderunt, vel 
potius omnes quicumque nati sunt. 

A. Ita prorsus existimo. 30 

31. Die, quaeso, num te ilia terrent, triceps 
apud inferos Cerberus, Cocyti fremitus, trans- 



18 TIXSC. QUAESTTONES : § 6v 

vectio Acherontis, mento summam aquam attin* 
gens siti enectus Tantalus? Num illud, quod 

Sisyphus versat 

Saxum sudans nitendo, ncque proficit hilum >. 

Fortasse etiam inexorabiles judices, Minos et 
Rhadamanthus? Apud quos nee te L. Crassus 
defendet, nee M. Antonius ; nee, quoniam apud 
Graecos judices res agetur, poteris adhibere De- 
mosthenem ; tibi ipsi pro te erit maxima corona 
i° causa dicenda. Haec fortasse metuis y et idcirco 
mortem censes esse sempiternum malum. 

A. Adeone me delirare censes,, ut ista esse 
credam ? 

M. An tu haec non credis I 

A. Minime vero. 

M. Male hercule narras. 

A. Cur ? quaeso. 

M. duia disertus esse possem, si contra ista 
dicerem. 
20 A. Quis enim non in ejusmodi causa? Aut 
quid negotii est, haec poetarum et pictorum por- 
tenta convincere 1 

31. Atqui pleni sunt libri contra ista ipsa 
philosophorum disserentium. 

A. Inepte sane; quis est eairn tarn excors y 
quern ista moveant ? 

M. Si ergo apud inferos miseri non sunt, ne 
sunt quidem apud inferos ufli. 

A. Ita prorsus existimo. 
30 M. Ubi ergo sunt ii quos miseros dicis, aut 
quern locum incolunt 1 Si enim sunt, nusquam 
esse non possunt. 

A. Ego vero nusquam esse illos puto* 

M. Igitur ne esse quidem. 



TtXSC. quaestiones : § 6r 10 

A. Prarsus isto modo ; et tamen miseros ob id 
ipsum quidem, quia nulli sunt. 

M. Jam mallem Ccrberum metueres, quarr* 
ista tarn inconsiderate diceres. 

A. Quid tandem ? 

M. Quern esse negas, eundem esse dicis ; ubi 
est acumen tuum ? Cum enim miserum esse di- 
cis, turn eum qui non sit dicis esse. 

A. Non sum ita hebes, ut istuc dicamv 

M. Quid dicis igitur I 10 

A. Miserum esse (verbi causa) Marc. Cras- 
sum, qui illas fortunas morte dimiserit ; miserum 
Cn. Pompeium, qui tanta gloria sit orbatus ; om~ 
r>es denique miseros, qui hac luce careant. 

M. Revolveris eodem ; sint enim oportet, si 
miseri sunt ; tu autem modo negabas eos esse, 
qui mortui essent. Si igitur non sunt, nihil pos- 
sant esse; ita ne miseri quidem sunt. 

A. Non dico fortasse etiam quod sentio ; nam 
istuc ipsum, non esse cum fueris, miserrimum 20 
puto. 

31. Quid ? miserius quam omnino numquarri 
fuisse ? Ita qui nondum nati sunt, miseri jam 
sunt quia non sunt ; et nos ipsi, si post mortem 
miseri futuri sumus, miseri fuimus antequam na- 
ti. Ego autem non commemini, antequam sum 
natus me miserum. Tu, si meliore memoria es, 
velim scire ecquid de te recordere. 

A. Ita jocaris quasi ego dicam, eos miseros 
qui nati non sunt, et non eos qui mortui sunt. ^ 

M. Esse ergo eos dicis. 

A. Immo, quia non sunt cum fuerint, eo mis- 
eros esse. 



20 TUSC. QJTAESTIONES : § 6. 

M. Pugnantia te loqui non vides 1 Quid enim 
tarn pugnat, quam non modo miserum, sed om- 
nino quidquam esse, qui non sit? An tu, egres- 
sus porta Capena, cum Calatini, Scipionum, 
Serviliorum, Metellorum, sepulcra vides, miseros 
putas illos ? 

A. Quoniam me verbo premis, posthac non 
ita dicam miseros esse, sed tantum mise?*os, ob id 
ipsum quia non sunt. 
io M. Non dicis, igitur, miser est M. Crassus ; 
sed tantum, miser M. Crassus. 

A. Ita plane. 

M. Quasi non necesse sit, quidquid isto modo 
pronunties, id aut esse, aut non esse. An tu di- 
alecticis ne imbutus quidem es ? In primis enim 
hoc traditur : Omne pronuntiatum, (sic enim 
mihi in praesentiaoccurrit ut appellarem d^icofia, 
utar post alio si invenero melius), id ergo est 
pronuntiatum, quod est verum aut falsum. Cum 
qo dicis igitur, miser M. Crassus, aut hoc dicis, 
miser est M. Crassus, ut possit judicari verum 
id falsumne sit ; aut nihil dicis omnino. 

A. Age, jam concedo non esse miseros qui 
mortui sunt ; quoniam extorsisti ut faterer, qui 
omnino non essent, eos ne miseros quidem esse 
posse. Quid ? Qui vivimus, cum moriendum 
sit, nonne miseri sumus? Quae enim potest in 
vita esse jucunditas, cum dies et noctes cogi- 
tandum sit, jam jamque esse moriendum ? 
30 M. Ecqui ergo intelligis, quantum mali de 
humana conditione dejeceris 1 

A. Quonam modo ? 

M. Quia, si mori etiam mortuis miserum es- 
set, infinitum quoddam et sempiternum malum 



TUSC. QUAESTIONES : § 6. tj 

haberemus in vita. Nunc video calcem ; ad 
quam cum sit decursum, nihil sit praeterea 
extimescendum. Sed tn mihi videris Ephichar- 
mi, acuti nee insulsi homiuis, ut Siculi, senter> 
tiam sequi. 

A. Quam ? non enim novi. 

31. Dicam, si potero, Latine ; scis enim me 
Graece loqui in Latino sermone non plus solere, 
quam in Graeco Latine. 

A. Et recte quidem ; sed quae tandem est 10 
Epicharmi ista sententia ? 

31. Emori nolo; sed me esse mortuum nihil 
aestimo. 

A. Jam agnosco Graecum ; et quoniam coe* 
gisti ut concederem, qui mortui essent eos mise>- 
ros non esse, perfice, si potes, ut ne morienduna 
quiderfi esse, miserum puXem. 

31. Jam istuc quidem nihil negotii est; sed 
etiam majora molior. 

A. Quo modo hoc nihil negotii est ? Aut a? 
quae sunt tandem ista majora ? 

31. Quia, quoniam si post mortem nihil est 
mali, ne mors quidem est malum ; cui proximum 
tempus est post mortem, in quo mali nihil esse 
concedis. Ita ne moriendum quidem esse, ma- 
lum est ; id est enim, perveniundum esse ad id, 
quod non esse malum confitemur. 

A. Uberius ista, quaeso ; haecenim spinosiora 
prius (ut confitear) me cogunt, quam ut assentiar. 
Sed quae sunt ea, quae dicis te majora moliri ? 3$ 

31. Ut doceam, si possim, non modo malum 
non esse, sed bonum etiam esse mortem. 

A. Non postulo id quidem ; aveo tamen aiu 
<dire ; ut enim non efficias quod vis, tamerj, imorj 
2* 



22 tusc. quaestiones : §§ 6, 7. 

ut malum non sit, efficies. Sed nihil te inter- 
pellabo ; continentem orationem audire malo. 

M. Quid ? si te rogavero aliquid, nonne res- 
pondebis? 

A. Superbum id quidem esset ; sed, nisi quid 
necesse erit, malo ne roges. 

31. Geram tibi morem ; et ea quae vis, ut po- 
tero, explicabo ; nee tamen quasi Pythius Apol- 
lo, certa ut sint et fixa quae dixero ; sed ut ho- 
10 munculus unus e multis, probabilia conjectura 
sequens. Ultra enim quo progrediar, quam ut 
veri videam similia, non habeo. Certa dicent ii, 
qui et percipi ea posse dicunt, et se sapientes es- 
se profitentur. 

A. Tu, ut videtur ; nos ad audiendum parati 
sumus. 

M. Mors igitur ipsa, quae videtur notissima 
res esse, quid sit, primum est videndum. Sunt 
enim qui discessum animi a corpore putent esse 

so mortem ; sunt qui nullum censeant fieri disces- 
sum, sed animum et corpus occidere, animumque 
cum corpore exstingui. Q,ui discedere animum 
censent, alii statim dissipari, alii diu permanere, 
alii semper, Quid sit porro ipse animus, aut 
ubi, aut unde, magna dissensio est. Aliis cor 
ipsum, animus videtur ; ex quo ex-cordes, ve-cor- 
des, con-cordesque dicuntur ; et Nasica ille pru- 
dens, bis consul, Corculum ; et, Egregie corda- 
tus homo, catus Aelius Sextus. 

33 Empedocles animum esse censet cordi suffu- 
sum sanguinem ; aliis, pars quaedam cerebri 
visa est animi principatum tenere ; aliis, nee cor 



TUSC. quaestiones : §§ 7, 8. 23 

ipsnm placet, nee cerebri quandam partem, esse 
animum : sed alii in corde, alii in cerebro, dix- 
erunt animi esse sedem et locum. Animum au- 
tem alii animam ; ut fere nostri. Declarat no- 
men ; nam et agcrc animam et efflare dicimus ; 
[et ammosos, et bene animator, et ex animi sen- 
tentia] ; ipse autem animus ab unima dictus est. 
Zerioni Stoico animus, ignis videtur. 

§8. 

Sed haec quidem quae dixi, cor, cerebrum, 
animam, ignem, vulgo ; reliqua fere singuli. 
Ut multi ante veteres, proxime autem Aristoxe- 
nus, musicus idemque pbilosophus, ipsius corpo- 
ris intentionem quandam ; velut in cantu et fidi- 
bus quae harmonia dicitur, sic ex corporis toti- 
us natura et figura, varies motus cieri, tamquam 
in cantu sonos. Hie ab artificio suo non reces- 
sit ; et tamen dixit aliquid quod ipsum, quale es- 
set, erat multo ante et dictum et explanatum a 
Platone. Xenocrates animi figuram et quasi 
corpus negavit esse ; verum numerum dixit esse, 20 
cujus vis, (ut jam antea Pythagorae visum erat), 
in natura maxima esset. Ejus doctor, Plato, 
triplicem finxit animam : cujus principatum, id 
est rationem, in capite sicut in arce posuit; et 
duas partes parere voluit, iram et cupiditatem, 
quas locis suis, iram in pectore, cupiditatem sub- 
ter praecordia, locavit. 

Dicaearchus autem, in eo sermone (quern Co- 
rinthi habitum tribus libris exponit) doctorum 
hominum disputantium, primo libro multos lo- 30 
quentes facit ; duobus, Pherecratem quendam 
Phthiotam senem, quern ait a Deucalione ortum, 



24 tfUSC. qUAESTIONES : §§ 8, & 

disserentem inducit, nihil esse omnino animum ? . 
et hoc esse nomen totum inane, frustraque an- 
imalia et animantes appellari; neque in homine 
inesse animum vel animam, nee in bestia ; vim- 
que omnem earn, qua vel agamus quid vel senti- 
amus, in omnibus corporibus vivis aequabiliter 
esse fusam, nee separabilem a corpore esse ; 
quippe quae nulla sit,, nee sit quidquam nisi cor* 
pus unum et simplex, ita figuratum ut tempera- 

i ; o tione naturae vigeat et sentiat. 

Aristoteles longe omnibus (Platonem semper 
excipio) praestans et ingenio et diligentia, cum 
quatuor ilia genera principiorum esset complex- 
us e quibus omnia orirentur, quintam quandam 
naturam censet esse, e qua sit mens ; cogitare 
enim, et providere, et discere, et docere, et in- 
venire aliquid, et tam multa alia, meminisse, 
amare, odisse, cupere, timere, angi, laetari — 
haec, et similia eorum, in horum quatuor gene- 

29 rum nullo messe putat. Quintum genus adhi- 
bet, vacans nomine ; et sic ipsum animum ivds- 
Xki^iav appellat, novo^ nomine, quasi quandam 
continuatam motionem et perennem. 

§9. 

Nisi quae me forte fugiunt, hae sunt fere de 
animo sententiae. Democritum enim, magnum 
quidem ilium virum, sed levibus et rotundis cor- 
pusculis efficientem animum concursu quodam 
fortuito, omittamus ; nihil est enim apud istos, 
quod non atomorum turba conficiat. Harum 
sententiarum quae vera sit, deus aliquis viderit ; 
' go quae verisimillirna, magna quaestio est. Utrum 



Tt/SC. quaestiones : § 9. 25 

i<^itur inter has sententias dijudicare malumus, 
an ad propositum redire ? 

A. Cuperem equidem utrumque, si posset ; 
sed est difficile contendere, Quare si, ut ista 
non disserantur, hberari mortis metu possumus, 
id agamus ; sin id non potest, nisi hac quaes- 
tione animorum explicata, nunc, si videtur, hoc ; 
illud, alias. 

M. Quod malle te inteliigo, id puto esse com- 
modius ; efficiet enim ratio, ut quaecumque vera 10 
sit earum sententiarum quas exposui, mors aut 
malum non sit, aut sit bonum potius. Nam si 
cor, aut sanguis, aut cerebrum est animus, cer- 
te, quoniam est corpus, interibit cum reliquo cor- 
pore. Si anima est, fortasse dissipabitur ; si ig- 
nis, exstinguetur ; si est Aristoxeni harmonia, 
dissolvetur. Quid de Dicaearcho dicam, qui nihil 
omnino animum dicat esse? His sententiis om- 
nibus, nihil post mortem pertinere ad quemquam 
potest ; pariter enim cum vita sensus amittitur. m 
Non sentientis autem, nihil est ullam in partem 
quod intersit. 

Reliquoium sententiae spem afFerunt, si te 
forte hoc delectat, posse animos,cum e corpori- 
bus excesserint, in coelum quasi in domicilium 
suum pervenire. 

A. Me vero delectat: idque primum ita esse 
velim ; deinde, etiam si non sit, mihi tamen 
persuader; velim. 

31. Quid tibi ergo opera nostra opus est? 30 
Num eloquentia Platonem superare possumus? 
Evolve diligenter ejus eum librum, qui est de 
animo ; amplius quod desideres, nihil erit. 

A. Feci mehercule, et quidem saepius; sED y 



26 TUSC. QUAESTIONES : §§ 9j 10. 

NESCIO QUO MODO, DUM LEGO, ASSENTIOR ; CUM 
POSUl LIBRUM, ET MECUM IPSE DE IMMORTALI- 
TATE ANIMORUM COEPI COGITARE, ASSENStO OM- 
NIS ILLA ELABITUR. 

31. Quid hoc ? Dasne, aut rnanere animos 
post mortem, aut morte ipsa interire ? 

A. Do vero. 

31. Ciuid, si maneant ? 

A. Beatos esse concedo. 
io 31. Si intereant? 

A. Non esse miseros ; quoniam ne sint qui- 
dem. Jam istuc, coacti a te, paullo ante conces- 
sirnus. 

31. duo modo igitur, aut cur, mortem malum 
tibi videri dicis ; quae aut beatos nos efficiet, ani- 
mis manentibus; aut non miseros, sensu carentes. 

§ 10. 

A. Expone igitur, nisi molestum est, pri- 
mum, si potes, animos remanere post mortem ; 
turn si minus id obtinebis (est enim arduum), 

20 docebis, carere omni malo mortem. Ego enim 
istuc ipsum vereor, ne malum sit, non dico ca- 
rere sensu, sed carendum esse. 

31. Auctoribus quidem ad istam sententiam, 
quam vis obtineri, uti optimis possumus ; quod 
in omnibus causis et debet et solet valere pluri- 
mum ; et primum quidem omni antiquitate ; 
quae quo propius aberat ab ortu et divina pro- 
genie, hoc melius ea fortasse, quae erant vera, 
cernebat. 

33 Itaque unum illud erat insitum priscis illis, 
quos Cascos appellat Ennius, esse in morte sen- 
sum, neque excessu vitae sic deleri hominem ut 



TUSC. QUAESTIONES : § 10. 27 

funditus interiret. Idque cum multis aliis rebus, 
turn e poutiiicio jure et caeremoniis sepulcrorum, 
intelligi licet; quas maximis ingeniis praediti 
nee tauta cura coluissent, nee violatas tarn inex- 
piabili religione sanxissent, nisi haesisset in eo- 
rum mentibus, mortem non interitum esse omnia 
tollentem atque delentem, sed quandam quasi 
migrationem commutationemque vitae, quae in 
Claris viris et faeminis dux in caelum soleret es- 
se ; in ceteris humi retineretur, et permaneret 10 
tamen. Ex hoc, et nostrorum opinione, Ro- 
mulus in caelo cum diis agit aevum, ut famae 
assentiens dixit Ennius ; et apud Graecos, in- 
deque perlapsus ad nos et usque ad Oceanum 
Hercules, tantus et tarn praesens habetur 
deus. Hinc Liber, Semela natus; eademque 
famae celebritate Tyndaridae fratres, qui non 
modo adjutores in proeliis victoriae populi Ro- 
mani, sed eliam nuntii fuisse perhibentur. 
Quid? Ino, Cadmi filia, nonne Leucothea no-o 
minata a Graecis, Matuta habetur a nostris? 
Quid? totum prope caelum, ne plures perse- 
quar, nonne humano genere completum est ? 
Si vero scrutari Vetera, et ex his ea, quae scripto- 
res Graeci prodiderunt, eruere coner ; ipsi illi, 
majorum gentium Dii qui habentur, hinc a nobis 
profecti in caelum reperientur. Quaere, quorum 
demonstrantur sepulcra in Graecia ; reminis- 
cere, quoniam es initiatus, quae traduntur mys- 
teriis ; turn denique, quam hoc late pateat, in- 30 
telliges. 

Sed qui nondum ea (quae multis post annis 
tractari coepissent) physica didicissent, tantum 
aibi persuaserant, quantum natura admonente 



"28 TU'SC. QUAESTIONES 1 § 11. 

cognoverant. Rationes et causas rerum noa 
tenebant. Visis quibusdam saepe movebantur, 
hisque maxime nocturnis, ut viderentur ii, qui 
vita excesserant, vivere. 

§11. 

Ut porro firmissimum afferri videtur, cur deos 
esse credanms, quod nulla gens tarn fera, nemo 
omnium tarn sit immanis, cujus mentem non im- 
buerit deorum opinio. Multi de diis prava sen- 
tiunt ; id enim vitioso more effici solet ; omnes 

Stamen esse vim et naturam divinam arbitrantur. 
Nee vero id collocutio hominum aut consensus 
effecit ; non institutis opinio est confirmata, non 
legibus. Omni autem in re, consensio omnium 
gentium lex naturae putanda est. Q,uis est, igi- 
tur, qui suorum mortem primum non eo lugeat, 
quod eos orbatos vitae commodis arbitretur ? 
Tolle hanc opinionem, luctum sustuleris. Ne- 
mo enim maeret suo incommodo. Dolent for- 
tasse et anguntur ; sed ilia lugubris lamentatio 

20 fletusque maerens ex eo est, quod eum quern di- 
eximus vitae commodis privatum arbitramur, id- 
que sentire. Atqae haec ita sentimus natura 
dtice, nulla ratione, nullaque doctrina. 

Maximum vero argumentum est, naturam ip- 
sarn de immortalitate animorum tacitam judi- 
care, quod omnibus curae sunt, et maxime qui- 
dem, quae post mortem futura sint. Serit arbo- 
res, quae alteri stxecuh pro sint, ut ait Statius in 
Synephebis ; quid spectans, nisi etiam postera 

30 secula ad se pertineref Ergo arbores seret dil- 
igens agricola, quarum adspiciet baccam ipse 
jaunquam ; vir magnus leges, instituta, rempuU* 



TUSC. quaestiones : §§ 11, 12. 29 

licam non seret ?* Quid procreatio liberorum, 
quid propagatio nominis, quid adoptiones filio- 
rum, quid testamentorum diligentia, quid ipsa se- 
pulcrorum monumenta, quid elogia significant, 
nisi nos futura etiarn cogitare? Quid 1 illud nurn 
dubitas, quin specimen naturae capi debeat ex op- 
tima quaque Datura f Quae est, igilur, melior in 
hominum genere natura, quam eorum qui se na- 
tos ad homines juvandos, tutandos, conservan- 
dos arbitrantur ? Abiit ad deos Hercules ; num- 10 
quam abiisset, nisi, cum inter homines esset, earn 
sibi viam munivisset. Vetera jam ista, et reli- 
gione omnium consecrata. 

§ 12. 
Quid in hac republica tot tantosque viros, ob 
rempublicam interfectos, cogitasse arbitramur ? 
Iisdemne ut finibus nomen suum, quibus vita, 
terminaretur ? Nemo umquam, sine magna spe 
immortal itis, se pro patria offerret ad mortem. 
Licuit esse otioso Themistocli ; licuit Epamin- 
ondae ; licuit, ne et Vetera et externa quaeram, 20 
mihi. Sed, nescio quomodo, inhaeret in 

MENTIBUS QUASI SAECULORUM QUODDAM AUGU- 

rium futurorum ; idque in maximis ingeniis al- 
tissimisque animis et existit maxime, et apparet 
facillime. Quo quidem demto, quis tarn esset 
aniens, qui semper in laboribus et periculis viv- 
eret ? Loquor de principibus. 

Quid poetae ? Nonne post mortem nobilitari 
volunt? Unde ergo illud : 

Adspicite o cives senis Ennii imaginis formam, 30 

Hie vestrum pinxit maxima facta patrum. 

Mercedem gloriae flagitat ab iis, quorum patres 
affecerat gloria. Idemque ; 



30 TtTSC. qitaestiones : §§ 12, 13V 

Nemo me lacrymis decoret, nee funera fletu 
Faxit. Cur J Volito vivu' per ora virum. 

Sed quid poetas ? Opifices post mortem no~ 
bilitari volunt. Quid enim Phidias sui similem 
specietn inclusit in clypeo Minervae, cum inscri- 
bere non liceret? Quid nostri philosophl? 
Nonne in his ipsis libris, quos scribunt de con- 
temnenda gloria, sua nomina inscribunt ? 

Quod si omnium consensus naturae vox est ;* 
iGomnesque, qui ubique sunt, consentiunt esse 
aliquid quod ad eos pertineat qui vita cesserint ; 
nobis quoque idem existimandum est. Et si, 
quorum aut ingenio aut virtute animus excellit, 
eos arbitramur (quia naturgL optima sunt) cer- 
nere naturae vim maxime ; verisimile est, cum 
optimus quisque maxime posteritati serviat, esse 
aliquid cujus is post mortem sen-sum sit habiturus, 

§ 13. 
Sed ut deos esse, natura opinamur ; quales- 
que sint, ratione cognoscimus : sic permanere 

20 animos, arbitramur consensu nationum omnium - 
qua in sede maneant qualesque sint, ratione dis- 
cendum est. Cujus ignoratio finxit Inferos, eas- 
que fbrmidines quas tu contemnere non sine 
causa vide bare. Tn terra m enim cadentibus 
corporibus, hisque humo tectis (e quo dictum 
est humari), sub terra censebant reliquam vitam 
agi mortuorum. Quam eorum opinionem mag- 
ni errores consecuti sunt : quos auxerunt poetae. 
Frequens enim consessus theatri, in quo sunt 

30 mulierculae et pueri, movetur audiens tarn gran- 
de carmen : 

Adsum, atque advenio Acheronte, vix, via alta atque ardua;. 
Per apeluncas saxis structas aaperis, pendentibus, 
Maximis ; ubi ri^ida constat crassa ciiligo Inferunxj 



TUSC. quaestiones : § 13, 14. 31 

Tantumque valuit error (qui mihi quidem jam 
sublatus videtur), ut corpora cremata cum sci- 
rent, tamen ea fieri apud Inferos fingerent, quae 
sine corporibus nee fieri possent nee intelligi. 
Animosenim per se ipsos viventes, non poterant 
mente complecti ; form am aliquam figuramque 
quaerebant. Inde Homeri tota vexvla ; inde ea 
quae meus amicus Appius vexgopuvitJu facie- 
bat ; inde in vicinia nostra Averni lacus, 

Unde anrmae excitantur, obscura umbra opertae, ostio *q 

Alti Acherontis, falso sanguine, imagines ruortuorum. 

Has tamen imagines loqui volunt ; quod fieri nee 
sine lingua, nee sine palato, nee sine faucium la* 
terumve et pulmonum vi et figura potest. Nihil 
enim animo videre poterant ; ad oculos omnia re- 
ferebant. Magni autem est ingenii sevocare men- 
tern a sensibus, et cogitationem a consuetudine 
abducere. Itaque (credo equidem etiam alios tot 
saeculis, sed) quod litteris exstet, Pherecydes 
Syrius primum dixit, animos hominum esse sem- 20 
piternos. Antiquus sane, fuit enim meo regnan- 
te gentifi. Hanc opinionem discipulus ejus 
Pythagoras maxime confirmavit : qui, cum Su- 
perbo regnante in Italiam venisset, tenuit Mag- 
nam illam Graeciam cum honore discipiinae 
turn etiam auctoritate : multaque saecula postea 
sic viguit Pythagoreorum nomen, ut nulli alii 
docti viderentur. 

514. 

Sed redeo ad antiquos. Rationem ill i senten*- 
tiae suae non fere reddebant, nisi quid erat nu- 30 
meris aut descriptionibus explicandum. Plato- 
nem ferunt r ut Pythagoreos cognosceret, in Ita- 



32 tusc. qjjaestiones : § 14. 

liam venisse, et didicisse Pythagorea omnia ; pri- 
mumque de animorum aeternitate non solum 
sensisse idem quod Pythagoram, sed rationem 
etiam attulisse ; quam (nisi quid dicis) praeter- 
mittamus, et hanc totam spem immortalitatis 
relinquamus. 

A. An tu, cum me in summam exspectatio- 
nem adduxeris, deseris? Errare, mehercule, 
malo cum Platone, (quern tu quanti facias scio, 

10 et quern ex tuo ore admiror), quam cum istis 
vera sentire. 

31. Macte virtute ; ego enim ipse cum eodem 
ipso non invitus erraverim. Num igitur dubi- 
tamus, sicut pleraque, sic et hoc ? Cluamquam 
hoc quidem minime ; persuadent enim mathe- 
inatici, terram in medio mundo sitam, ad univer- 
si caeli complexum quasi puncti instar obtinere, 
quod yAvxqov illi vocant ; earn porro naturam 
esse quatuor omnia gignentium corporum, ut 

go quasi partita habeant inter se et divisa momenta. 
Terrena et humida, suopte nuiu et suo pondere, 
ad pares angulos in terram et in mare ferantur ; 
reliquae duae partes, una ignea altera animalis, 
ut illae superiores in medium locum mundi grav- 
itate ferantur et pondere, sic hae rursum rectis 
lineis in caelestem locum subvolent, sive ipsa 
natura superiora appetente, sive quod a graviori- 
bus leviora natura repellantur. 

Q-uae cum constent, perspicuum debet esse, 

30animos, cum e corpore excesserint, sive illi sint 
animales (id est, spirabiles), sive ignei, in sub- 
lime ferri. Si vero aut numerus quidam sit ani- 
mus, quod subtiliter magis quam dilucide dici- 
tur ; aut quinta ilia non nominata magis quam 



TUSC. quaestiones : § 14, 15. 33 

non intellecta natura ; multo etiam integriora ac 
puriora sunt, ut a terra longissime se efFerant. 
Horum igitur aliquid animus est, nee tarn vege- 
ta mens aut in corde cerebrove, aut in Empe- 
docleo sanguine demersa jaceat. 

§ 15. 

Dicaearchum vero, cum Aristoxeno aequali et 
condiscipulo suo, doctos sane homines, omitta- 
mus ; quorum alter ne condoluisse quidem un- 
quam videtur, qui animum se habere non senti- 
at; alter ita delectatur suis cantibus, ut eos eti- 10 
am ad haec transferre conetur. Harmoniam au- 
tern ex intervallis sonorum nosse possumus, quo- 
rum varia compositio etiam harmonias efficit 
plures ; membrorum vero situs et figura corpo- 
ris, vacans animo, quam possit harmoniam efficere 
non video. Sed hie quidem, quamvis eruditus 
sit (sicut est), haec magistro concedat Aristot- 
eli ; canere ipse doceat : bene enim illo prover- 
bio Graecorum praecipitur, 

Q-uara quisque norit artem, in hac se exerceat. 90 

Illam vero funditus ejiciamus individuorum 
corporum levium et rotundorum concursionem 
fortuitam ; quam tamen Democritus concale- 
factam et spirabilem, id est, animalem esse vo- 
luit. Is autem animus, qui, si est horum qua- 
tuor generum ex quibus omnia constare dicun- 
tur, ex inflammata anima constat, (ut potissimum 
videri video Panaetio), superiora capessat ne- 
cesse est ; nihil enim habent haec duo genera 
proni, et supera semper petunt. Ita, sive dis-ao 
sipantur, procul a terris id evenit ; sive perma- 



84 TTJSC. qijaestiones : § 15, 16. 

nent et conservant habitum suum, hoc etiam 
magis necesse est ferantur ad caelum, et ab his 
perrumpatur et dividatur crassus hie et concre- 
tus aer qui est terrae proximus: ealidior est 
enim, vel potius ardentior animus, quam est hie 
aer, quern modo dixi crassum atque concretum ; 
quod ex eo sciri potest, quia corpora nostra, ter- 
re.no principiorum genere confecta, ardore animi 
concalescunt. 

§ 16. 

io Accedit, ut eo facilius animus evadat ex hoc 
aere, quern saepe jam appello, eumque perrum- 
pat, quod nihil est animo velocius ; nulla est 
celeritas, quae possit cum animi celeritate con- 
tendere : qui si permanet incorruptus suique 
similis, necesse est ita feratur, ut penetret et 
dividat omne caelum hoc, in quo nubes, imbres, 
ventique coguntur, quod et humidum et caligi- 
nosum est propter exhalationes terrae. Quam 
regionem cum superavit animus^ naturamque sui 

20similem contigit et agnovit, junctis ex anima 
tenui et ex ardore solis temperato ignibus in- 
sistit, et finem aitius se efferendi facit. Cum 
enim sui similem et levitatem et calorem adep- 
tus, tamquam paribus examinatus ponderibus., 
nullam in partem movetur ■; eaque ei demum 
naturalis est sedes, cum ad sui similem pene- 
travit, in quo nulla re egens aletur, et sustenta- 
bitur iisdem rebus quibus astra sustentantur e,t 
aluntur. 

30 Cumque corporis facibus inflammari soieamus 
;ad omnes fere cupiditates ; eoque magis incendi, 
quod iis aemulemur qui ea habeant quae nos 



TUSC. QUAESTIONES I § 1 G. 35 

habere cupinmus ; profecto beati erimus, cum, 
corporibus relictis, et cupiditatum et aemulutio- 
num erimus expertes. Quodque nunc facimus, 
cum laxati curis sum us, ut spectare aliquid veli- 
mus et visere; id mill to turn faciemus liberius, 
totosque nos in conteraplandis rebus perspicien- 
disque ponemus, propterea quod et natura inest 
mentibus nostris insatiabilis quaedam cupiditas 
veri videndi; et orae ipsae locorum illorum quo 
pervenerimus, quo faciliorem nobis cognitionem 1Q 
rerum caelestium, eo majorem cognoscendi cu- 
piditatem dabunt. 

Haec enim pulchritude, etiam in terris, patri- 
am illam et avitam (ut ait Theophrastus) philo- 
sophiam, cognitionis cupiditate incensam, exci- 
tavit. Praecipue vero fruentur ea, qui turn 
etiam, cum has terras incolentes circumfusi erant 
caligine, tamen acie mentis dispicere cupiebant. 
Etenim si nunc aliquid assequi se putant, qui 
ostium Ponti viderunt, et eas angustias, per 2 ** 
quas penetravit ea quae est nominata, 

Argo, quia Argivi in ea, delecti viri, 
Vecti, petebant pellem inauratam arietis ; 

aut ii, qui Oceani freta ilia viderunt, 

Europam, Libyamque rapax ubi dividit unda ; 

quod tandem spectaoulum fore putamus, cum 
totam terram contueri licebit, ejusque cum si- 
tum, formam, circumscriptionem, turn et ha- 
bitabiles regiones, et rursum omni cultu propter 
vim frigoris aut caloris vacantes ? so 

Nos enim ne nunc quidem oculis cernimus 
ea, quae videmus; neque enim est ullus sensus 
in corpore ; sed, (ut non solum physici docent 



36 TUSC. quaestiones : § 16, 17. 

verum etiam medici qui ista aperta et patefacta 
viderunt), viae quasi quaedam sunt ad oculos, 
ad aures, ad nares, a sede animi perforatae. Ita- 
que saepe aut cogitatione, aut aliqua vi niorbi 
impediti, apertis atque integris et oculis et auri- 
bus, nee videmus, nee audimus; ut facile intel- 
ligi possit, (minium et videre et audire, non eas 
partes quae quasi fenestrae sunt animi : quibus 
tamen sentire nihil queat mens, nisi id agat et 

10 adsit. 

Quid ? quod eadem mente res dissimillimas 
comprehendimus, ut colorem, saporem, calorem, 
odorem, sonum ? quae numquam quinque nuntiis 
animus cognosceret, nisi ad eumomnia referren- 
tur, et is omnium judex solus esset. Atque ea 
profecto turn multo puriora et dilucidiora cer- 
nentur, cum, quo natura fert, liber animus per- 
venerit. Nam nunc quidem, quamquam forami- 
na ilia quae patent ad animum a corpore, cal- 

solidissimo artificio natura fabricata est, tamen 
terrenis concretisque corporibus sunt intersepta 
quodammodo. Cum autem nihil erit praeter 
animum, nulla res objecta impediet, quo minus 
percipiat quale quidque sit. 

§17. 

Quamvis copiose haec diceremus, si res pos- 
tularet, quam multa, quam varia, quanta specta- 
cula animus in locis caelestibus esset habiturus. 
duae quidem cogitans, soleo saepe mirari non- 
nullorum insolentiam philosophorum, qui naturae 
30 cognitionem admirantur, ejusque inventori et 
principi gratias exultantes agunt, eumque vene- 
rantur ut deum ; liberatos enim se per eum 



rrobi quvr.STioNEs : §'§ 17, IS. 37 

dicunt gravissimis dominis, terrore sempiterno, 
et diurno ac nocturno mctu. Quo terrore ? 
Quo metu ? Quae est anus tarn delira, quae 
timeat ista, quae vos videlicet, si physica non 
didicissetis, timeretis ? 

Ac her aria templa, alta Orci .... 
l'alaiia Loti, obnubila lenebfil loca ! 

Non pudet philosophum in eo gloriari, quod haec 
non timeat, et quod falsa esse cognoverit? ex 
quo intelligi potest, quam acuti natura sint, qui 10 
haec sine doctrina credituri fuerint. 

Praeclarum autem nescio quid adepti sunt, 
quod didicerunt, se, cum tempus mortis venisset, 
totos esse perituros. Quod ut ita sit (nihil enim 
pugno), quid habet ista res aut laetabile, aut 
gloriosum ? Nee tamen mihi sane quidquam 
occurrit, cur non Pythagorae sit et Platonis vera 
sententia ; ut enim rationem Plato nullam affer- 
ret, (vide quid homini tribuam), ipsa auctoritate 
me frangeret. Tot autem rationes attulit, ut^o 
velle ceteris, sibi certe persuasisse videatur. 

§ 18. 

Sed plurimi contra nituntur, animosque quasi 
capite damnatos morte multant. Neque aliud est 
quidquam, cur incredibilis his animorum videa- 
tur aeternitas, nisi quod nequeunt, qualis animus 
sit vacans corpore, intelligere et cogitatione 
comprehendere. Quasi vero intelligant, qualis 
sit in ipso corpore, quae conformatio, quae 
magnitudo, qui locus ; ut, si jam possent in nom- 
ine vivo cerni omnia quae nunc tecta sunt, ca- 30 
surusne in conspectum videatur animus ; an tan- 
ta sit ejus tenuitas, ut fugiat aciem. 
3 



38 TUSC. q,uaestiones : §§ 18, 19. 

Haec reputent isti, qui negant animum sine 
corpore se intelligere posse. Videbunt, quern in 
ipso corpore intelligant. Mihi quidem naturam 
animi intuenti, multo difficilior occurrit cogita- 
tio multoque obscurior, qualis animus in corpo- 
re sit, tamquam alien ae domi ; quam qualis cum 
exierit et in liberum caelum, quasi domum, 
venerit. Nisi enim, quod numquam vidimus, id 
quale sit intelligere non possumus ; certe et De- 

10 um ipsum, et divinum animum corpore libera- 
tum, cogitatione complecti possumus. 

Picaearcfaus quidem et Aristoxenus, quia dif- 
ficilis erat animi quid aut qualis esset intelligen- 
tia, nullum omnino animum esse dixerunt. Est 
illud quidem vel maximum, animo ipso animum 
videre ; et nimirum hanc habet vim praeceptum 
Apollinis, quo monet ut se quisque noscat. Non 
enim, credo, id praecipit, ut membra nostra aut 
staturam figuramve noscamus. Neque nos cor- 

wpora sumus ; neque ego, tibi dicens hoc, corpori 
tuo dico. Cum igitur nosce te dicit, hoc 
dicit : nosce animum tuum. Nam corpus qui- 
dem quasi vas est, aut aliquod animi receptacu- 
lum. Ab animo tuo quidquid agitur, id agitur 
a te. Hunc igitur nosse, nisi divinum esset, 
non esset hoc acrioris cujusdam animi praecep- 
tum, sic, ut tributum deo sit, [hoc est, se ipsum 
posse cognoscere.] 

§19. 

Sed si qualis sit animus, ipse animus nesciet ; 

30 die, quaeso, ne esse quidem se sciet ? ne moveri 

quidem se 1 Ex quo ilia ratio nata est Platonis, 

quae a Socrate est in Phaedra explicata, a. me 



TUSC. quaestiones : § 19. 3D 

autem posita est in sexto libro de Republica : 
H Quod semper movetur, aeternum est ; quod 
autem motum affert alicui, quodque ipsum agita- 
tur aliunde, quando finem habet motus, vivendi 
finem habeat necesse est. Solum igitur quod se 
ipsum movet, quia numquam deseritur a se, 
numquam ne moveri quidem desinit ; quinetiam 
ceteris quae moventur, hie fons, hoc principium 
est movendi. Principii autem nulla est origo. 
Nam e principio oriuntur omnia ; ipsum autem 10 
nulla ex re alia nasci potest ; nee enim esset 
principium, quod gigneretur aliunde. Quod si 
numquam oritur, ne occidit quidem umquam ; 
nam principium exstinctum nee ipsum ab alio 
renascetur, nee a se aliud creabit, siquidem 
necesse est a principio oriri omnia. Ita fit, ut 
motus principium ex eo sit, quod ipsum a se 
movetur. Id autem nee nasci potest, nee mo- 
ri ; vel concidat omne caelum omnisque terra, 
consistat necesse est, nee vim ullam nanciscatur 20 
qua primo impulsa moveatur. Cum pateat igi- 
tur, aeternum id esse quod se ipsum moveat, 
quis est qui hanc naturam animis esse tributam 
neget ? Inanimum est enim omne, quod pulsu 
agitatur externo ; quod autem est animal, id 
motu cietur interiore et suo. Nam haec est 
propria natura animi atque vis ; quae, si est una 
ex omnibus quae se ipsa semper moveat, neque 
nata certe est r et aeterna est." 

Licet concurrant plebeii omnes philosophi, 30 
(sic enim ii qui a Platone et Socrate et ab ea 
familia dissident, appellandi videntur), non modo 
nihil umquam tarn eleganter explicabunt, sed ne 
hoc quidem ipsum quam subtiliter conclusum 



40 TUSC. quaestiones : §§ 19, 20. 

sit, intelligent. Sentit igitur animus se moveri ; 
quod cum sentit, illud una sentit, se vi sua non 
aliena moveri ; nee accidere posse ut ipse um- 
quam a se deseratur. Ex quo efficitur aeterni- 
tas ; nisi quid habes ad haec. 

A. Ego vero facile sum passus, ne in mentem 
quidem mihi aliquid contra venire ; ita isti faveo 
sententiae. 

§20. 

M. Quid ilia tandem ? Num leviora censes, 
io quae declarant inesse in animis hominum divina 
quaedam? quae si cernerem quemadmodum 
nasci possent, etiam quemadmodum interirent 
viderem. Nam sanguinem, bilem, pituitam, 
ossa, nervos, venas, omnem denique memborum, 
et totius corporis figuram, videor posse dicere 
unde concreta, et quo modo facta sint; animum 
ipsum, si nihil esset in eo nisi id, ut per eum 
viveremus, tarn natura putarem hominis vitam 
sustentari, quam vitis, quam arboris ; haec enim 
20 etiam dicimus vivere. Item si nihil haberet ani- 
mus hominis, nisi ut appeteret aut refugeret, id 
quoque esset ei commune cum bestiis. 

Habet primum memoriam, et earn infinitam, 
rerum innumerabilium. duam quidem Plato 
recordationem esse vult superioris vitae ; nam 
in illo libro, qui inscribitur Menon, pusionem 
quendam Socrates interrogat quaedam geometri- 
ca de dimensione quadrati. Ad ea sic ille re- 
sponded ut puer ; et tamen, ita faciles interroga- 
aotiones sunt, ut gradatim respondens eodem per- 
veniat quo si geometrica didicisset. Ex quo 
effici vult Socrates, ut discere nihil aliud sit nisi 



TUSC. QUAESTIONES : §21. 41 

recordari. Quern locum multo etiam accuratius 
explicat in eo sermone, quern habuit eo ipso die 
quo excessit e vita ; docet enim, quemvis, qui 
omnium rerum rudis esse videatur, bene inter- 
roganti respondentem, declarare se non turn ilia 
discere, sed reminiscendo recognoscere ; nee 
vero fieri ullo modo posse, ut, a pueris, tot re- 
rum atque tantarum insitas et quasi consignatas 
in animis notiones (quas Ivvolag vocant) habere- 
mus, nisi animus, antequam in corpus intravis- 10 
set, in rerum cognitione viguisset. Cumque ni- 
hil esset, ut omnibus locis a Platone disseritur, 
(nihil enim ille putat esse quod oriatur et inte- 
reat, idque solum esse quod semper tale sit qua- 
lem idtuv appellat ille, nos speciem), non potuit 
animus haec in corpore inclusus agnoscere ; cog- 
nita attulit. Ex quo tarn multarum rerum cogni- 
tionis ad mi ratio tollitur. Neque ea plane videt 
animus, cum tarn repente in insolitum tamque 
perturbatum domicilium immigravit ; sed cum 20 
se collegit atque recreavit, turn agnoscit ilia 
reminiscendo. Ita nihil aliud est discere, nisi 
recordari. 

Ego autem, majore etiam quodam modo, me- 
moriam admiror. Quid est enim iilud, quo mem- 
inimus? Aut quam habet vim; aut unde na- 
tam ? Non quaero, quanta memoria Simonides 
fuisse dicatur ; quanta Theodectes ; quanta is, 
qui a Pyrrho legatus ad senatum est missus, Cy- 
neas ; quanta nuper Charmadas ; quanta, qui 30 
modo fuit, Scepsius Metrodorus ; quanta noster 
Hortensius. De communi hominum memoria 
loquor, et eorum maxime qui in aliquo majore 
studio et arte versantur ; quorum quanta mens 



42 TUSC. qjjaestiones : §21. 

sit, difficile est existimare ; ita multa memine- 
runt. 

§21. 

Quorsum igitur haec spectat oratio ? Quae 
sit ilia vis, et unde, intelligendum puto. Non 
est certe nee cordis, nee sanguinis, nee cerebri, 
nee atomorum. Anima sit animus, io-nisve, 
nescio ; nee me pudet, ut istos, fateri nescire 
quod nesciam. Illud, si ulla alia de re obscura 
affirmare possem, (sive anima sive ignis sit ani- 

iomus),eum jurarem esse divinum. Quid enim, 
obsecro te ; terrane tibi, aut hoc nebuloso et 
caliginoso coelo, aut sata aut concreta videtur 
tanta vis memoriae ? Si quid sit hoc non vides, 
at quale sit vides ; si ne id quidem, et quantum 
sit profecto vides. 

Quid igitur? Utrum capacitatem aliquam 
in animo putamus esse, quo, tamquam in aliquod 
vas, ea quae meminimus infundantur ? Absur- 
dum id quidem ; qui enim fundus, aut quae 

20 talis animi figura, intelligi potest. Aut quae 
tanta omnino capacitas? An imprimi quasi 
ceram animum putamus, et memoriam esse 
signatarum rerum in mente vestigia? Quae 
possunt verborum, quae rerum ipsarum, esse 
vestigia? Quae porrotam immensa magnitudo, 
quae ilia tarn multa possit effingere ? Quid,,? 
Ilia vis, quae tandem est quae investigat occulta, 
quae inventio atque excogitatio dicitur? Ex 
hacne tibi terrena, mortalique natura et caduca, 

30 concreta ea videtur? Aut qui primus, quod 
summae sapientiae Pythagorae visum est, omni- 
bus rebus imposuit nomina ? Aut qui dissipa- 



Trsc. quaestiones : § 22,23. 43 

tos homines congre^avit, et ad societatem vitae 
convocavit I Aut qui sonos vocis, qui infiniti 
videbantur, paucis litterarum notis terminavit? 
Aut qui orrantium stellarum cursus, regressiones, 
institiones QOtav.it ? Omnes magni ; etiam su- 
periors, qui fruges, qui vestitum, qui tecta, qui 
cultum vitae, qui praesidia contra feras, invene- 
runt ; a quibus mansuefacti et exculti, a neces- 
sariis artiticiis ad elegantiora defluximus. Nam 
et auribus oblectatio magna parta est, inventa et 10 
temperata varietate et natura sonorum. 

Et astra suspeximus, turn ea quae sunt 
infixa certis locis, turn ilia non re sed voca- 
bulo errantia ; quorum conversiones omnes- 
que rnotus qui animo vidit, is docuit similem ani- 
mum suum ejus esse, qui ea fabricatus esset in 
caelo. Nam cum Archimedes lunae, solis, qnin- 
que errantium, motus in sphaeram illigavit ; ef- 
fecit idem quod ille, qui in Timaeo mundum 
aedificavit, Platonis deus, ut tarditate et celeri-20 
tate dissimillimos motus una regeret conversio. 
Quod si in hoc mundo fieri sine deo non potest, 
ne in sphaera quidem eosdem motus Archimedes 
sine divino ingenio potuisset imitarL 

§22, 

Mihi vero ne haec quidem notiora et illustrio- 
ra carere vi divina videntur, ut ego aut poetam 
grave plenumque carmen sine caelesti aliquo 
mentis instinctu putem fundere ; aut eloquen- 
tiam sine quadam vi majore fluere, abundantem 
sonantibus verbis uberibusque sententiis. Philo- 30 
sophia vero, omnium mater artium, quid est 
aliud, nisi (ut Plato ait) donum, (ut ego), inventwn 



44 TUSC. quaestiones : §§ 22, 23. 

deorum ? Haec nos primum ad illorum cultum ; 
deinde ad jus hominum, quod situm est in gen- 
eris humani societate ; turn ad modestiam mag- 
nitudinemque animi, erudivit : eademque ab ani- 
rao, tamquam ab oculis, caliginem dispulit, ut 
omnia supera, infera, prima, ultima, media vide- 
remus. Prorsus haec divina mihi videtur vis, 
quae tot res efficiat et tantas. Quid est enim 
memoria rerum et verborum ? Quid porro in- 

io ventio ? Profecto id, quo nee in deo quidquam 
majus intelligi potest. Non enim ambrosia de- 
os, aut nectare, aut Juventate pocula minis- 
trante, laetari arbitror ; nee Homerum audio, 
qui Ganymedem a diis raptum ait propter for- 
mam, ut Jovi bibere ministraret. Non justa 
causa, cur Laomedonti tanta fieret injuria. 
Fingebat haec Homerus, et humana ad deos 
transferebat ; divina mallem ad nos. Quae au- 
tem divina ? Vigere, sapere, invenire, memin- 

aaisse. Ergo animus (ut ego dico) divinus est; 
ut Euripides audet dicere, deus : et quidem 
si deus aut anima aut ignis est, idem est animus 
hominis. Nam ut ilia natura caelestis et terra 
vacat et humore ; sic utriusque harum rerum 
humanus animus est expers. Sin autem est 
quinta quaedam natura, ab Aristotele inducta ; 
primum haec et deorum est et animorum. 

§23. 

Hanc nos sententiam secuti, his ipsis verbis 
in Consolatione haec expressimus : " Animo- 
rum nulla in terris origo inveniri potest; nihil 
30 enim est in animis mixtum atque concretum, 
aut quod ex terra natum atque fictum esse vi- 



TUSC. quaestiones : §§ 23,24. 45 

deatur ; nihil ne aut humidum quidem, aut Ha- 
bile, aut igneum. His enim in naturis nihil in- 
cst, quod vim memoriae, mentis, cogitationis 
habeat ; quod et praeterita teneat, et futura pro- 
videat, et complecti possit praesentia ; quae sola 
divina sunt. Nee invenietur umquam, unde ad 
hominem renire possint, nisi a deo. Singularis 
est igitur quaedam natura atque vis animi, se 
juncta ab his usitatis notisque naturis. Ita quid- 
quid est illud, quod sentit, quod sapit, quod vivit, 10 
quod viget, caeleste et divinum est ; ob eamque 
rem, aeternum sit necesse est. Nee vero deus 
ipse, qui intelligitur a nobis, alio modo intelli- 
gi potest, nisi mens soluta quaedam et libera, 
segregata ab omni concretione mortali, omniaque 
sentiens et movens, ipsaque praedita motu sem- 
piterno." Hoc e genere, atque eadem e natura, 
est humana mens. 

§24. 

Ubi igitur, aut qualis est fsta mens ? Ubi 
tua, aut qualis? Potesne dicere? An, si om- 20 
nia ad intelligendum non habeo quae habere 
vellem, ne iis quidem quae habeo mihi per te 
uti licebit? Non valet tantum animus ut se ip- 
se videat ; at, ut oculus, sic animus se non vi- 
deos alia cernit. Non videt autem (quod mini- 
mum est) formam suam. Fortasse ; quamquam 
id quoque ; sed relinquamus. Vim certe, sa- 
gacitatem, memoriam, motum, celeritatem videt, 
Haec magna, haec divina, haec sempiterna 
sunt. Quae facie quidem sit, aut ubi habitet. : 
ne quaerendum quidem est. Ut cum videmns 
speciem prim urn candoremque caeli : deinde 
3* 



46 TUSC. Q.UAESTIONES : § 24. 

conversionis celeritatem tantam, quantam cogi- 
tare non possumus ; turn vicissitudines dieruin 
atque noctium, commutationesque temporum 
quadripartitas, ad raaturitatem frugum et ad 
temperationem corporum aptas ; eorumque om- 
nium moderatorem et ducem solem ; lunamque 
accretione et diminutione luminis, quasi fasto- 
rum notis signantem dies ; turn in eodem orbe 
in duodecim partes distributo, quinque Stellas 
10 ferri eosdem cursus constantissime servantes, 
disparibus inter se motibus ; nocturnamque cae- 
li formam undique sideribus ornatam : turn glo 
bum terrae eminentem e mari fixum in medio 
mundi universi loco, duabus oris distantibus ha- 
bitabilem et cultum ; quarum altera, quam nos 
incolimus, 

Sub axe posita ad Stellas septem, unde horrifer 
Aquilonis stridor gelidas molitur nives ; 

altera australis, ignota nobis, quam vocant Grae- 
20 ci ccvii%&ova ; ceteras partes incultas, quod aut 
frigore rigeant aut urantur calore ; hie autem, 
ubi habitamus, non intermittit suo tempore, 

Caelum nitescere, arbores frondescere, 
Vites laetificae pampinis pubescere, 
Rami baccarum uberitate incurvescere, 
Segetes largiri fruges, florere omnia, 
Fontes seatere, her bis prata convestirier; 

turn multitudinem pecudum, partim ad vescen- 
dum, partim ad cultas agrorum, partim ad ve- 
30 hendum, partim ad corpora vestienda ; homi- 
nemque ipsum quasi contemplatorem caeli ac de- 
orum, ipsorumque cultorem ; atque hominis util- 
itati agros omnes et maria parentia — haec igitur 
et alia innumerabilia cum cernimus, possumus- 
ne dubitare, quin his praesit aliquis vel Effector, 



TUSC. QUAESTIONES I §§ 24, 25. 47 

si haec nata sunt (ut Platoni videtur), vel si sem- 
per fuerint (ut Aristoteli placet), Moderator 
tanti operis et muneris? Sic mentem hominis, 
quamvis earn non videas, (ut deum non vides), 
tamen, ut deum agnoscis ex operibus ejus, 
SIC EX MEMORIA rerum, et inventione, et 

CELERITATE MOTUS, OMNIQUE PULCHRITUDINE 
V1RTUTIS, VIM DIVINAM MENTIS AGNOSCITO. 

§ 25. 

In quo igitur loco est? Credo equidem in 
capite ; et cur credam, afferre possum. Sed 10 
alias ; nunc ubi sit animus, certe quidem in te 
est. Quae est ei natura ? Propria, puto, et 
sua. Sed fac igneam, fac spirabilem ; nihil ad 
id de quo agimus. Illud modo videto, ut deum 
noris, etsi ignores et locum et faciem ; sic ani- 
mum tibi tuum notum esse oportere, etiam si 
ejus ignores et locum et form am. In animi au- 
tem cognitione, dubitare non possumus, nisi 
plane in physicis plumbei sumus, quin nihil sit 
animis admixtum, nihil concretum, nihil copula- 20 
turn, nihil coagmentatum, nihil duplex. Quod 
cum ita sit, certe nee secerni, nee dividi, nee 
discerpi, nee distrahi potest ; nee interire igitur. 
Est enim interitus quasi discessus et secretio ac 
diremptus earum partium, quae ante interitum 
junctione aliqua tenebantur. 

His et talibus rationibus adductus, Socrates 
nee patronum quaesivit ad judicium capitis, nee 
judicibus supplex fuit ; adhibuitque liberam 
contumaciam, a magnitudine animi ductam, non 30 
a superbia. Et supremo vitae die, de hoc ipso 
multa disseruit, et paucis ante diebus, cum facile 



48 TUSC. qUAESTIONES : § 25. 

posset educi e custodia, noluit ; et cum paene 
in manu jam mortiferum illud teneret poculum, 
locutus ita est, ut non ad mortem trudi, verum 
in caelum videretur ascendere. 

Ita enim censebat itaque disseruit : *Duas 
esse vias duplicesque cursus animorum a corpo- 
re excedentium. Nam qui se humanis vitiis 
contaminavissent, et se totos libidinibus dedidis- 
sent, quibus caecati ; vel domesticis vitiis atque 
flagitiis se inquinavissent ; vel republica violanda 

10 fraudes inexpiabiles concepissent ; iis devium 
quoddam iter esse, seclusum a concilio deorum. 
Qui autem se integros castosque servavissent ; 
quibusque fuisset minima cum corporibus conta- 
gio, seseque ab his semper sevocassent ; essent- 
que in corporibus humanis vitam imitati deorum ; 
his ad illos a quibus essent profecti, reditum 
facilem patere.' Itaque commemorat, ut cygni 
(qui non sine causa Apollini dicati sint, sed 
quod ab eo divinationem habere videantur qua 

20 providentes quid in morte boni sit), cum cantu 
et voluptate moriantur ; sic omnibus et bonis et 
doctis esse faciendum. Nee vero de hoc quis- 
quam dubitare posset ; nisi idem nobis accide- 
ret, diligenter de animo cogitantibus, quod iis 
saepe usu venit, qui cum acriter oculis deficien- 
tem solem intuerentur, ut adspectum omnino 
amitterent : sic mentis acies, seipsa intuens, 
nonnumquam hebescit, ob eamque causam con- 

30 templandi diligentiam amittimus. Itaque dubi- 
tans, circumspectans, haesitans, multa adrersa 
reverens, tamquam ratis in mari immenso, nos- 
tra vehitur oratio. 

Sed haec et vetera, et a Graecis. Cato au- 



TUSC. quaestiones : §§ 25, 2G. 49 

tern sic abiit e vita, ut causam moriendi nactuni 
se esse gauderet. Vetat enim dominans ille 

IN NOBIS DEUS, 1NJUSSU H1NC NOS SUO DEMIGIIA- 

re. Cum vero causam justam deus ipse dede- 
rit, ut tunc Socrati, nunc Catoni, saepe multis ; 
nae ille, medius fidius, vir sapiens, laetus ex his 
tenebris in lucem illam excesserit ; nee tamen 
ilia vincula carceris ruperit, leges enim vetant. 
Sed tamquam a magistratu, aut ab aliqua potes- 
tate legitima, sic a deo evocatus atque emissus, 10 
exierit. Tota enim philosophorum vita, ut ait 
idem, commentatio mortis est. 

§26. 

Nam quid aliud agimus, cum a voluptate, id 
est a corpore ; cum a re familiari, quae est min- 
istra et famula corporis ; cum a republica ; cum 
a negotio omni, sevocamus animum ? Quid, 
inquam, turn agimus, nisi animum ad seipsum 
advocamus, secum esse cogimus, maximeque 
a corpore abducimus? Secernere autem a 
corpore animum, nee quidquam aliud est, quam 20 
emori discere. Quare hoc commentemur, mihi 
crede, disjungamusque nos a corporibus, id est, 
consuescamus mori. Hoc et, dum erimus in 
terris, erit illi caelesti vitae simile ; et cum illuc 
ex his vinculis emissi feremur, minus tardabitur 
cursus animorum. Nam qui in compedibus cor- 
poris semper fuerunt, etiam cum soluti sunt, 
tardius ingrediuntur ; ut ii, qui ferro vincti mul- 
tos annos fuerunt. Quo cum venerimus, turn 
denique vivemus. Nam haec quidem vita30 
mors est; quam lamentari possem, si liberet. 

A. Satis quidem tu in Consolatione eslamen- 



50 tusc. quaestiones : §§ 26, 27. 

tatus ; quam cum lego, nihil malo quam has res 
relinquere ; his vero modo auditis, malto magis. 
, 31. Veniet ternpus, et quidem celeriter, et 
sive retractabis sive properabis ; volat enim 
aetas. Tantum autem abest [ab eo] ut malum 
mors sit, quod tibi dudum videbatur, ut verear 
ne homini nihil sit, non malum aliud certe, sed 
nihil bonum aliud potius : siquidem vel dii ipsi, 
vel cum diis futuri sumus. 

§27. 

io A. Quid refert? Adsunt, enim, qui haec 
non probent. 

M. Ego autem numquam ita te in hoc ser- 
nione dimittam, ulla uti ratione mors tibi videri 
malum possit. 

A. Qui potes; cum ista cognoverim ? 

M. Qui possit, rogas ? Catervae veniunt 
contra dicentium, non solum Epicureorum (quos 
equidem non despicio), sed nescio quo modo 
doctissimus quisque contemnit ; acerrime autem 
20 deliciae meae, Dicaearchus, contra hanc immor- 
talitatem disseruit. Is enim tres libros scripsit, 
(qui Lesbzaci vocantur, quod Mytilenis sermo 
habetur), inquibus vult efrlcere animosesse mor- 
tales. Stoici autem usuram nobis largiuntur, 
tamquam cornicibus : diu mansuros aiunt am- 
inos ; semper, negant. 

Num vis igitur audire, cur, etiam si ita sit, 
mors tamen non sit in malis ? 

A. Ut videtur ; sed me nemo de immortalita- 
30 te depellet. 

M. Laudo id quidem ; etsi nihil nimis oportet 
confidere. Movemur enim saepe aliquo acute 



ti:sc. ojarstioxes : §$ 27, 28. 5 1 

concluso ; labamus, mutamusque sententiam, 
chirioribus etiam in rebus ; in his est enim ali- 
qua obscuritas. Id igitur si acciderit, simus 
armati. 

A, Sane quidem ; sed ne accidat, providebo. 

M. Nam quid igitur est causae, quin amicos 
nostros Stoicos dimittamus? eos dico qui aiunt 
animos manere e corpore cum excesserint, sed 
non semper. 

A. lstos vero ; qui quod tota in hac causa 10 
difficillimum est suscipiant, posse animum 
manere corpore vacantem ; illud autem, quod 
non modo facile ad credendum est, sed (eo con- 
cesso quod volunt) consequens — id certe non 
dant, ut cum diu permanserit ne intereat. 

M. Bene reprehendis ; ut se isto modo res 
habet. Credamus igitur Panaetio, a Platone 
suo disentienti ? quern enim omnibus locis 
divinum, quern sapientissimum, quern sanctissi- 
mum, quern Homerum philosophorum, appellat, 20 
hujus hanc unam sententiam de immortalitate 
animorum non probat. Vult enim, quod nemo 
negat, quidquid natum sit, interire ; nasci autem 
animos, quod declaret eorum similitudo qui pro- 
creantur ; quae etiam in ingeniis, non solum in 
corporibus, appareat. 

Alteram autem affert rationem ; nihil esse quod 
doleat, quin id aegrum esse quoque possit ; quod 
autem in morbum cadat, id etiam interiturum : 
dolere autem animos ; ergo etiam interire. 30 

§28. 

Haec refelli possunt ; sunt enim ignorantis, 
cum de aeternitate animorum dicatur, de mente 



52 TUSC. Q.UAESTIONES : § 28, 29. 

dici quae omni turbido motu semper vacet ; non 
de partibus iis in quibus aegritudines, irae, libi- 
dinesque versentur : quas is, contra quern haec 
dicuntur, semotas a mente et disclusas putat. 
Jam similitudo magis apparet in bestiis, quarum 
animi sunt rationis expertes ; hominum autem 
similitudo, in corporum figura magis exstat. Et 
ipsi animi, magni refert quali in corpore locati 
sint ; multa enim e corpore existunt, quae acu- 

xo ant mentem ; multa, quae obtundant. 

Aristoteles quidem ait, omnes ingeniosos me- 
lancholicos esse ; ut ego me tardiorem esse non 
moleste feram. Enumerat multos ; idque quasi 
constet, rationem cur ita fiat affert. Quod si 
tanta vis est ad habitum mentis in iis, quae gig- 
nuntur in corpore, (ea sunt autem, quaecumque 
sunt, quae similitudinem faciant) ; nihil necessi- 
tatis affert cur nascatur animi similitudo. O- 
mitto dissimilitudines. 

30 Vellem adesse posset Panaetius. Vixit cum 
Africano. Quaererem exeo, cujus suorum sim- 
ilis fuisset African i fratris nepos ; facie vel pa- 
tris, vita omnium perditorum, ita similis, ut esset 
facile deterrimus. Cujus etiam similis P. Cras- 
si, et sapientis et eloquentis et primi hominis, 
nepos; multorumque aliorum virorum clarorum^ 
quos nihil attinet nominare, nepotes et iilii ? 

^29. 

Sed quid agimus ? Oblitine sumus hoc nunc 
nobis esse propositum, cum satis de aeternitate 
so dixissemus, ne si interirent quidem animi, quid- 
quam mali esse in morte ? 

A, Ego vero memineram ; sed te de aeterni- 



TUSC. quaestiones : §29. 53 

tate dicentcm aberrare a proposito facile patie- 
bar. 

M. Video te alte spectare, et vclle in caelum 
migrare. 

A. Spero fore, ut contingat id nobis; sed fac, 
ut isti volunt, aniinos non remanere post mor- 
tem ; video nos, si ita sit, privari spe beatioris 
vitae. 

M. Mali vero quid affert ista sententia ? Fac 
enim sic animum interire ut corpus ; num igitur 10 
aliquis dolor, aut omnino post mortem sensus, in 
corpore est ? Nemo id quidem dicit ; etsi De- 
mocritum insimulat Epicurus. Democritici ne- 
gant. Ne in animo quidem igitur sensus rema- 
net ; ipse enim nusquam est. Ubi igitur malum 
est, quoniam nihil tertium est? An quoniam 
ipse animi discessus a corpore non sit sine do- 
lore ? Ut credam ita esse, quam est id exiguum ! 
Et falsum esse arbitror; et fit plerumque sine 
sensu ; nonnumquam etiam cum voluptate. To- 20 
tumque hoc leve est, qualecumque est ; lit enim 
ad punctum temporis. Illud angit vel potius 
excruciat, discessus ab omnibus iis quae sunt 
bona in vita. Vide ne a malis dici verius possit. 

Quid ego nunc lugeam vitam hominum ? vere 
et jure possum. Sed quid necesse est, cum id 
agam, ne post mortem miseros nos putemus fore, 
etiam vitam efficere deplorando miseriorem ? 
Fecimus hoc in eo libro, in quo nosmetipsos 
quantum potuimus consolati sumus. A mails 30 
igitur mors abducit, non a bonis, verum si quae- 
rimus. 

Hoc quidem a Cyrenaico Hegesia sic copiose 
disputatur, ut is a rege Ptolemaeo prohibitus es- 



54 TUSC. QTJAESTIONES : § 29, 30. 

se dicatur ilia in scholis dicere ; quod multi, 
his auditis, mortem sibi ipsi consciscerent. 
Callimachi quidem epigramma in Ambraciotam 
Cleombrotum est; quern ait, cum nihil ei acci- 
disset adversi, e muro se in mare abjecisse, lec- 
to Platonis libro. Ejus autem (quern dixi) He- 
gesiae liber est, * AnonaQTiQUiVy quod a vita qui- 
dam, per inediam discedens, revocatur ab ami- 
cis ; quibus respondens, vitae humanae enume- 
10 rat incommoda. Possem id facere, etsi minus 
quam ille qui omnino vivere expedire nemini 
putat. Mitto alios; etiamne nobis expedit? qui 
et domesticis et forensibus solatiis ornamentis- 
que privati, certe, si ante occidissemus, mors 
nos a malis, non a bonis abstraxisset. 

§ 30. • 

Sit igitur aliquis, qui nihil mali habeat, nul- 
lum a fortuna vulnus acceperit. Metellus ille 
honoratis quatuor filiis ; at quinquaginta Pria- 
mus ; e quibus septem et decern justa uxore na- 
20 tis. In utroque eandem habuit fortuna potesta- 
tem ; sed usa in altero est. Metellum enim 
multi filii, filiae, nepotes, neptes, in rogum im- 
posuerunt ; Priamum tanta progenie orbatum, 
cum in aram confugisset, hostilis manus intere- 
mit. Hie, si vivis filiis, incolumi regno, occi- 
disset, 

Astante ope barbarica, 
Tectis caelatis, Jaqueatis, 

utrum tandem a bonis an a malis discessisset? 
30 Turn profecto videretur a bonis. At certe ei 
melius evenisset ; nee tarn flebiliter ilia caneren- 
tur, 



tusc. quaestiones : § 30, 31. 55 

Ifaec omnia vidi inflammari, 
Priamo vi vitain evitari, 
Jovis ararn sanguine turp&ri. 

Quasi vero ista vel quidquam turn potuerit ei 
melius accidere. duod si ante occidisset, turn 
eventum omnino amisisset ; hoc autern tem- 
pore, sensum malorum amisit. 

Pompeio uostro familiar i, cum graviter aegro- 
tasset Neapoli, melius est factum. Coronati 
Neapolitani fuerunt ; nimirum etiam Puteolani io 
rulgo ex oppidis publice gratulabantur. Inep- 
tum sane negotium, et Graeculum ; sed tamen 
fortunatum. Utrum igitur, si turn esset exstinc- 
tus, a bonis rebus an a malis discessisset ? Cer- 
te a miseris ; non enim cum socero bellum ges- 
sisset ; non imparatus arma sumsisset ; non do- 
mum reliquisset : non ex Italia fugisset ; non, 
exercitu amisso, nudus in servorum ferrum et 
man us incidisset ; non liberi defleti ; non fortu- 
nae omnes a victoribus possiderentur ; qui, si 2 o 
mortem turn obisset, in amplissimis fortunis oc- 
cidisset. Is, propagatione vitae, quot, quantas, 
quam incredibiles hausit calamitates 1 Haec 
morte effugiuntur ; etiam si non evenerint, ta- 
men quia possunt evenire. Sed homines ea si- 
bi accidere posse non cogitant. Metelli sperat 
sibi quisque fortunam ; perinde quasi aut plures 
fortunati sint quam infelices ; aut certi quidquam 
sit in rebus humanis ; aut sperare sit prudentius 
quam timere. 

§ 31. 

Sed hoc ipsum concedatur, bonis rebus hom-30 
ines morte privari ; ergo etiam carere mortuos 
vitae commodis, idque esse miserum ? Certe, 



56 TUSC. quaestiones : § 31. 

ita dicant, necesse est. An potest is, qui non 
est, re ulla carere ? Triste enim est nomen ip- 
surn carendi, quia subjicitur haec vis : ' Habuit, 
nonhabet ; desiderat, requirit, indiget ;' haec, opi- 
nor, incommoda sunt carentis. Caret oculis, 
odiosa caecitas ; liberis, orbitas. Valet hoc in 
vivis; mortuorum autem, non modo vitae com- 
modis, sed ne vita quidem ipsa, quisquam caret. 
De mortuis loquor, qui nulli sunt. Nos qui su- 

lOmus, num, aut si cornibus caremus, aut pennis, 
sit qui id dixerit? Certe nemo. Quid ita? 
Quia cum id non habeas, quod tibi nee usu nee 
natura sit aptum, non careas, etiam si sentias te 
non habere. Hoc premendum etiam atque eti- 
am est argumentum, confirmato illo, de quo ( si 
mortales animi sunt ) dubitare non possumus, 
quin tantus interitus in morte sit, ut ne minima 
quidem suspicio sensus relinquatur. Hoc igitur 
probe stabilito et fixo, illud excutiendum est, ut 

sosciatur quid sit carere ; ne relinquatur aliquid er- 
roris in verbo. Carere, igitur, hoc significat : 
Egere eo quod habere veils. Inest enim velle in 
carendo ; nisi cum sic, tamquam in febri, dicitur, 
alia quadam notione verbi. Dicitur enim alio 
modo etiam carere, cum aliquid non habeas, et 
non habere te sentias, etiam si id facile patiare, 
Carere in morte non dicitur ; nee enim esset do- 
lendum. Dicitur illud, bono carere; quod est 
malum. Sed ne vivus quidem bono caret, si eo 

30 non indiget. Sed in vivo intelligi tamen potest, 
regno carere. Dici autem hoc in te satis subtil- 
iter non potest ; potuisset in Tarquinio, cum reg- 
no esset expulsus. At in mortuo ne intelligi 
quidem potest 3 carere enim sentientis est. Nee 



Trsc. quAESTiONEs : §§ 31,32. 57 

sensus in mortuo ; nc carcrc quidem, igitur, in 
mortuo est. Quamquam quid opus est in hoc 
philosophari, cum rem non magnopere philoso- 
phia egere videamus ? 

§32. 

Quoties non modo ductores nostri, sed uni- 
versi etiam exercitus, ad non dubiam mortem 
concurrerunt ? Quae quidem si timeretur, non 
L. Brutus, arcens eum reditu tyrannum quern 
ipse expulerat, in proelio concidisset. Non cum 
Latinis decertans pater Decius, cum Etruscis 10 
filius, cum Pyrrho nepos, se hostium telis ob- 
jecissent. Non uno bello pro patria cadentes, 
Scipiones Hispania vidisset ; Paullum et Gemi- 
num, Cannae ; Venusia, Marcellum ; Latini, Al- 
binum ; Lucani, Gracchum. Num quis horum 
miser hodie ? Ne turn quidem post spiritum ex- 
tremum ; nee enim potest esse miser quisquam, 
sensu peremto. 

* At id ipsum odiosum est, sine sensu esse.' 
Odiosum, si id esset carere. Cum vero per- 20 
spicuum sit, nihil posse in eo esse qui ipse non 
sit ; quid potest esse in eo odiosum, qui nee 
careat nee sentiat ? Quamquam hoc quidem 
nimis saepe ; sed eo quod in hoc inest omnis 
animi contractio ex metu mortis. Qui enim 
satis viderit, id quod est luce clarius, animo et 
corpore consumpto, totoque animante deleto, et 
facto interitu universo, illud animal quod fuerit 
factum esse nihil ; is plane perspiciet, inter Hip- 
pocentaurum qui numquam fuerit, et regem 3° 
Agamemnonem, nihil interesse : nee pluris 
nunc facere M. Camillum hoc civile bellum, 



58 TUSC. quaestiones : §§ 32, 33. 

quam ego, illo vivo, fecerim Romam captam. 
Cur igitur et Camillus doleret, si haec post tre* 
centos et quinquaginta fere annos eventura pu- 
taret ; et ego doleam, si ad decern millia anno- 
rum gentem aliquam urbe nostra potituram pu- 
tem ? Quia tanta caritas patriae est, ut 

EAM NON SENSU NOSTRO, SED SALUTE IPSIUS 
METIAMUR* 

§ 33. 

Itaque non deterret sapientem mors, quae prop- 
10 ter . incertos casus quotidie imminet, propter 
brevitatem vitae numquam longe potest abesse, 
quo minus in omne tempus reipublicae suisque 
consulat ; et posteritatem ipsam, cujus sensum 
habiturus non sit, ad se putet pertinere. duare 
licet etiam mortalern esse animum, judicantem 
aeterna moliri, non gloriae cupiditate quam sen- 
sums non sis, sed virtutis, quam necessario glo- 
ria, etiam si tu id non agas, consequatur. Na- 
tura vero sic se habet, ut quo modo initium no- 
20 bis rerum omnium ortus noster afferat, sic exi- 
tum mors ; ut nihil pertinuit ad nos ante ortum, 
sic nihil post mortem pertinebit. In quo, quid 
potest esse mali ? cum mors nee ad vivos perti- 
neat, nee ad mortuos. Alteri nulli sunt ; alte- 
ros non attingit. duam qui leviorem faciunt, 
somni simillimam volunt esse ; quasi vero quis- 
quam ita nonaginta annos velit vivere, ut, cum 
sexaginta confecerit, reliquos dormiat. Ne sues 
quidem id velint, non modo ipse. Endymion 
30 vero, si fabulas audire volumus, nescio quando, 
in Latmo obdormivit qui est mons Cariae ; non- 
dum, opinor^ est experrectus. Num igitur eum 



TTJSC. quaestiones : §§ 33, 34. 59 

curare censes, cum Luna laboret, a qua conso 
pitus putatur ut eum dormientem oscularetur ? 
Quid curet autem, qui ne sentit quidem ? Ha- 
bes sommim imaginem mortis, eamque quotidie 
induis. Et dubitas quin sensus in morte nullus 
sit, cum in ejus simulacro videas esse nullum 
sen sum ? 

§34. 

Pellantur ergo istae ineptiae paene aniles, ante 
tempus mori miserum esse. Quod tandem tem- 
pus? Naturaene ? At ea quidem dedit usu-io 
ram vitae, tamquam pecuniae, nulla praestituta 
die. Quid est igitur, quod querare, si repetit 
cum vult ? ea enim conditione acceperas. Ii- 
dem, si puer parvus occidit, aequo animo feren- 
dum putant; si vero in cunis, ne querendum 
quidem. Atqui ab hoc acerbius exegit natura, 
quod dederat. Nondum gustaverat, inquiunt, 
vitae suavitatem ; hie autem jam sperabat mag- 
na, quibus frui coeperat. At id quidem ipsum in 
ceteris rebus melius putatur, aliquam partem 20 
quam nullam attingere ; cur in vita secus ? 
Quamquam non male ait Callimachus, multo 
saepius lacrymasse Priamum quam Troilum. 
Eorum autem, qui exacta aetate moriuntur, fbr- 
tuna laudatur. Cur? Nam reor nullis, si vita 
longior daretur, posset esse jucundior. Nihil 
est enim profecto homini prudentia dulcius ; 
quam, ut cetera auferat, affert certe senectus. 
Quae vero aetas longaest? Aut quid omnino 
homini longum ? Nonne 30 

Modo pueros, modo adolescentes, in cursu, ter^o inscquen9, 
.Nee opi names assecuta est 



60 tusc. quaesttones : §§ 34, 35. 

senectus ? Sed quia ultra nihil habemus, hoc 
longum ducimus. Omnia ista, perinde ut cui- 
que data sunt pro rata parte, ita, longa aut bre- 
via dicuntur. 

Apud Hypanim fluvium, qui ab Europae 
parte in Pontum influit, Aristoteles ait bestiolas 
quasdam nasci, quae unum diem vivant. Ex 
his igitur, hora octava quae mortua est, provec- 
ta aetate mortua est ; quae vero occidente sole, 
lodecrepita; eo magis, si etiam solstitiali die. 
Confer nostram longissimam aetatem cum ae- 
ternitate ; in eadem propemodum brevitate, qua 
illae bestiolae, reperiemur. 

§35. 

Contemnamus igitur omnes ineptias, (quod 
enim levius huic levitati nomen imponam ?) 
totamque vim bene vivendi in animi robore ac 
magnitudine, et in omnium rerum humanarum 
contemptione ac despicientia, et in omni virtute 
ponamus. Nam nunc quidem cogitationibus 

20 mollissimis effeminamur, ut, si ante mors adven- 
tet quam Chaldaeorum promissa consecuti su- 
mus, spoliati magnis quibusdam bonis, illusi, 
destitutique videamur. Quod si exspectando et 
desiderando pendemus animis, cruciamur, angi- 
mur ; pro dii immortales ! quam iter illud jucun- 
dum esse debet, quo confecto, nulla reliqua cu- 
ra, nulla sollicitudo futura sit ! 

Quam me delectat Theramenes ; quam elato 
animo est ! Etsi enim flemus, cum legimus, 

3otamen non miserabiliter vir clarus emoritur ; 
qui, cum conjectus in carcerem triginta jussu 
tyrannorum venenum ut sitiens obduxisset, re- 



tusc. quaestionks : §§ 35, 36. CI 

liquum sic e poculo ejecit ut id rcsonaret ; quo 
sonitu reddito, arrideus, Propino, inquit, hoc 
pulchro Critiac, qui in cum fuerat taeterrimus. 
Graeci enim in conviviis solcnt nominare, cui 
poculum tradituri sint. Lusit vir egregius ex- 
trcmo spiritu, cum jam praccordiis conceptam 
mortem contineret ; vereque ei, cui venenum 
praebiberat, mortem est earn auguratus quae 
brevi consecuta est. 

§36. 

Quis hanc animi maximi aequitatem in ipsa 10 
morte laudaret, si mortem malum judicaret ? Va- 
dit in eundem carcerem, atque in eundem pau- 
cis postannis scyphum, Socrates ; eodem scelere 
judicum, quo tyrannorum Theramenes. Quae 
est igitur ejus oratio, qua facit euni Plato usum 
apud judices, jam morte mulctatum ? " Magna 
me," inquit, " spes tenet, Judices, bene mihi 
evenire, quod mittar ad mortem. Necesse est 
enim, sit alterum de duobus ; ut aut sensus ora- 
nino omnes mors auferat, aut in alium quendam 20 
locum ex his locis morte migretur. Q,uamob- 
rem, sive sensus exstinguitur, morsque ei som- 
no similis est qui nonnumquam etiam sine visis 
somniorum placatissimam quietem affert ; dii bo- 
ni, quid lucri est mori ! Aut quam multi dies 
reperiri possunt, qui tali nocti anteponantur ? 
Cui si similis futura est perpetuitas omnis con- 
sequents temporis, quis me beatior ? Sin vera 
sunt quae dicuntur, migrationem esse mortem 
in eas oras, quas qui e vita excesserunt incolunt ; 30 
id multo jam beatius est, te, cum ab iis qui se 
judicum numero haberi velint evaseris, ad eos 
4 



62 tusc. quAESTioNEs : §§ 36, 37. 

venire qui vere judices appellentur, Minoem, 
Rhadamanthum, Aeacum, Triptolemum, con- 
venireque eos, qui juste et cum fide vixerint. 
Haec peregrinatio mediocris vobis videri potest? 
Ut vero colloqui cum Orpheo, Musaeo, Homero, 
Hesiodo liceat, quanti tandem aestimatis 1 E- 
quidem saepe emori (si fieri posset) vellem, ut ea 
quae dico mihi liceret invenire. Quanta delec- 
tatione autem afficerer, cum Palamedem, cum 

ioAjacem,cum alios judicio iniquo circumventos, 
convenirem ? Tentarem etiam sum mi regis, 
qui maximas copias duxit ad Trojam, et Ulyssi. 
Sisyphique prudentiam ; nee ob earn rem, cum 
haec exquirerem sicut hie faciebam, capite dam- 
narer. Ne vos quidem, Judices, ii qui me ab- 
solvistis, mortem timueritis. Nee enim cuiquam 
bono mali quidquam evenire potest, nee vivo, 
nee mortuo ; nee umquam ejus res a diis immor- 
talibus negligentur. Nee mihi ipsi hoc accidit 

20 fortuito; nee vero ego iis, a quibus accusatus 
sum, aut a quibus condemnatus, habeo quod suc- 
censeam, nisi quod mihi nocere se crediderunt." 
Et haec quidem hoc modo ; nihil autem meli- 
us extremo : " Sed tempus est," inquit, " jam 
hinc abire me, ut moriar ; vos, ut vitam agatis ; 
utrum autem sit melius, dii immortales sciunt; 
hominem quidem scire arbitror neminem. ,, 

§37. 
Nae ego haud paullo hunc animum malim, 
quam eorum omnium fortunas qui de hoc judi- 
caverunt. Etsi, quod praeter deos negat scire 
quemquam, id scit ipse, utrum melius sit ; nam 
dixit ante. Sed suum illud, nihil ut affirmet, 
tenet ad extremum. 



TUSC. qUAESTIONES I § 37. Go 

Nos autem tenesmus, ut nihil censcamus esse 
malum, quod sit a nature datum omnibus ; intel- 
ligamusque, si mors malum sit, esse sempiter- 
num malum. Nam vitae miserae mors finis esse 
videtur ; mors si est misera, finis esse nullus po- 
test. 

Sed quid ego Socratem, aut Theramenem, 
praestantes viros virtutis et sapientiae gloria, 
commemoro, cum Lacedaemonius quidam, cujus 
ne nomen quidem proditum est, mortem tanto- 10 
pere contempserit, ut, cum ad earn duceretur, 
damnatus ab Ephoris, et esset vultu hilari atque 
laeto, dixissetqne ei quidam inimicus : Contem- 
nisne leges Lycurgi ? responderit : u Ego ve- 
ro illi maximam gratiam habeo, qui me ea poena 
mulctaverit, quam sine mutuatione et sine versura 
possem dissolvere." O virum Sparta dignum! 
ut mihi quidem, qui tarn magno animo fuerit, 
innocens damnatus esse videatur. 

Tales innumerabiles nostra civitas tulit. Sed 20 
quid duces et principes nominem, cum legiones 
scribat Cato saepe alacres in eum locum profec- 
tas, unde redituras se non arbitrarentur ? Pari 
animo Lacedaemonii in Thermopylis occiderunt, 
in quos Simonides : 

Die, hospes, Spartae, nos te hie vidi?se jacentes, 
Dum Sanctis patriae legibus obsequimur. 

[Quid ille dux Leonidas dicit ? Pergite animo 
ford y Lacedaemonii ; hodie apud Inferos fortas- 
se caenabimus. Fuit haec gens fortis, dum Ly- 30 
curgi leges vigebant] ; e quibus unus, cum 
Perses hostis in colloquio dixisset glorians : " So- 
lem prae jaculorum multitudine et sagittarum 
non videbitis.^ In umbra, inquit, igitur pugna- 
bimus. 



64 TUSC. Q.UAESTIONES : §§ 37, 38. 

Viros commemoro ; qualis tandem Lacaena? 
quae cum filium in proelium misisset, et inter- 
fectum audisset, " Idcirco," inquit, "genueram, 
ut esset qui pro patria mortem non dubitaret oc- 
cumbere." 

Esto ; fortes et duri Spartiatae ; magnam ha- 
bet vim reipublicae disciplina. Quid ? Cyre- 
naeum Theodorum, philosophum non ignobilem, 
nonne miramur? cui cum Lysimachus rex cru- 
10 cem minaretur, " Istis quaeso," inquit, "ista 
horribilia minitare purpuratis tuis ; Theodori 
quidem nihil interest, humine an sublime putres- 
cat." 

§38. 

Cujus hoc dicto admoneor, ut aliquid etiam 
de humatione et sepultura dicendum existimem ; 
rem non difficilem, iis praesertim cognitis quae 
(de nihil sentiendo) paullo ante dicta sunt. De 
qua Socrates quidem quid senserit, apparet in 
eo libro in quo moritur ; de quo jam tarn multa 

^diximus. Cum enim de immortalitate animo- 
rum disputavisset, et jam moriendi tempus urge- 
ret, rogatusaCritonequemadmodum sepeliri vel- 
let, " Multam vero," inquit, " operam, amici, 
frustra consumpsi. Critoni enim nostro non'per- 
suasi me hinc avolaturum, neque quidquam mei 
relicturum. Verumtamen, Crito, si me assequi 
potueris, aut sicubi nactus eris, ut tibi videbitur, 
sepelito. Sed, mihi crede, nemo me vestrum, 
cum hinc excessero, consequetur." 

30 Praeclare id quidem, qui et amico permiserit, 
et se ostenderit de hoc toto genere nihil labora- 
re. Durior Diogenes, et is idem sentiens, sed 
(ut Cynicus) asperius, projici se jussit inhuma- 



TUSC. QUAESTIONES I § 38. 65 

turn. Turn amici : Volucribusne et fcris ? 
Minime vero, inquit; sed bacilluin propter me quo 
abigam, ponitote. Qui poteris ? illi, non enim 
senties. Quid igitur mihi ferarum laniatus 
oberit, nihil senticnti I 

Praeclare Anaxagoras ; qui cum Lampsaci 
moreretur, quaerentibus amicis, velletne Clazo- 
menas io patriam, si quid ei accidisset, afferri : 
Nihil necesse est, inquit ; undique enim ad Infe- 
ros tanumdem viae est. 10 

Totaque de ratione humationis unum tenen- 
dum est ; ad corpus illam pertinere, sive oc- 
ciderit animus sive vigeat. In corpore autem 
perspicuum est, vel exstincto animo vel elapso, 
nullum residere sensum. 

Sed plena errorum sunt omnia. Trahit Hec- 
torem, ad currum religatum, Achilles. Lace- 
rari eura et sentire, credo, putat. Ergo hie ul- 
ciscitur, ut quidem sibi videtur. At ilia sicut acer- 
bissimam rem maeret : 20 

Vidi, viderc quod me passa aegerrime, 
Hectorem quadrijugo curru raptarier. 

Quern Hectorem ? Aut quamdiu ille erit Hec- 
tor ? Melius Accius, et aliquando sapiens 
Achilles : 

Imrao enimvero corpus Priamo reddidi, Hectorem abstuli. 

Non igitur Hectora traxisti, sed corpus quod fu- 
erat Hectoris. 

Ecce alius exoritur e terra, qui matrem dor- 
mire non sinat : 30 

Mater, te appello, tu quae curam somno suspensam levas, 
Neque te mei raiseret ; surge, et sepeli natum. 

Haec cum pressis et flebilibus modis, qui totis 
theatris maestitiam inferant, concinuntur ; diffi- 



66 TUSC. quaestiones : §§ 38, 39. 

cile est, non eos qui inhumati sint miseros judi- 
care. 

Prius quam ferae, volucresque; 

metuit, ne laceratis membris minus bene utatur : 
ne combustis, non extimescit. 

Neu relliquias sic meas siris, denudatis ossibus, 
Per terram sanie delibutas foede divexarier. 

Non intelligo quid metuat, cum tarn bonos septe- 
narios fundat ad tibiam. 
10 Tenendum est igitur, nihil curandurn esse 
post mortem, cum multi inimicos etiam mortuos 
poeniantur. Execratur, luculentis sane versi- 
bus, apud Ennium Thyestes, primum ut naufra- 
gio pereat Atreus. Durum hoc sane ; talis enim 
interitus non est sine gravi sensu. Ilia inania : 

— Ipse summis saxis fixus asperis, evisceratus, 

Latere pendens, saxa spargens tabo, sanie, et sanguine atro. 

Non ipsa saxa magis sensu omni vacabant, 
quam ille latere pendens, cui se hie cruciatum 
so censet optare. Quae essent dura, si sentiret, 
nulla sine sensu sunt. Illud vero perquam ina- 
ne : 

Neque sepulcrum, quo recipiatur, habeat, portum corporis, 
Ubi, remissa humana vita, corpus requiescat a malis. 

Vides quanto haec in errore versentur ; portum 
esse corporis, et requiescere in sepulcro putat 
mortuum : magna culpa Pelopis, qui non eru- 
dierit filium nee docuerit, quatenus essetquidque 
curandurn. 

§39. 

30 Sed quid singulorum opiniones animadver- 
tam, nation unr varios errores perspicere cum 
liceat? Condiunt Aegyptii mortuos, et eos 



TUSC. quaestiones : § 39. 67 

domi servant. Pcrsae ctiam cera circumlitos 
condunt, ut quam maxime permaneant diuturna 
corpora. Magorum mos est, non humare corpo- 
ra suorum, nisi a feris sint ante laniata. In 
Ilyrcania plebs publicos alit canes ; optimates, 
domesticos. Nobile an tern genus canura illud 
scimus esse. Sed pro sua quisque facultate pa- 
rat, a qui bus lanietur ; eamque optimam 111 i esse 
censent sepulturam. Permulta alia colligit Chry- 
sippus, ut est in omni historia curiosus ; sed ita 10 
taetra sunt quaedam, ut ea fugiat et reformidet 
oratio. Tot us igitur hie locus est contemnen- 
dus in nobis, non negligendus in nostris ; ita 
tamen, ut mortuorum corpora nihil sentire senti- 
amus. Quamtum autem consuetudini, fainae- 
que dandurn sit, id curent vivi ; sed ita ut intel- 
ligant nihil ad mortuos pertinere. 

Sed profecto mors turn aequissimo animo op- 
petitur, cum suis se laudibus vita occidens con- 
solari potest. Nemo parum diu vixit, qui virtu- 20 
tis perfectae perfecto functus est munere. Mul- 
ta mihi ipsi ad mortem tempestiva fuerunt ; 
quam utinam potuissem obire. Nihil enim jam 
acquirebatur ; cumulata erant officia vitae, cum 
fortuna bella restabant. (iuare, si ipsa ratio 
minus perficiet ut mortem negligere possimus ; 
at vita acta perficiat, ut satis superque vixisse 
videamur. Quamquam enim sensus abierit, ta- 
men summis et propriis bonis et laudis et glo- 
riae, quamvis non sentiant, mortui non carent. 30 
Etsi enim nihil in se habeat gloria cur expeta- 
tur, tamen virtutem tamquam umbra sequitur. 
Verum multitudinis judicium de bonis, si quan- 
do est, magis laudandum est, quam illi ob earn 
rem beati. 



68 TU3C. quaestiones : § 40. 

§40. 
Non possum autem dicere, quoquo modo hoc 
accipiatur, Lycurgum, Solonem, legum et pubii- 
cae disciplinae carere gloria ; Themistoclem, 
Epaminondam, bellicae virtutis. Ante enim 
Salarninam ipsam Neptunus obruet, quam Sala- 
minii tropaei memoriam ; priusque Boeotia 
Leuctra tollentur, quam pugnae Leuctricae glo- 
ria. Multo autem tardius fama deseret Curium, 
Fabricium, Calatinum, duo Scipiones, duo Afri- 

locanos, Maximum, Marcellum, Paullum, Cato- 
nem, Laelium, innumerabiles alios ; quorum 
similitudinem aliquam qui arripuerit, non earn 
fama populari sed vera bonorum laude metiens, 
fidenti animo (si ita res fert) gradietur ad mor- 
tem : in qua aut summum bonum, aut nullum 
malum esse cognovimus. 

Secundis vero suis rebus volet etiam mori ; 
non enim tarn cumulus bonorum jucundus esse 
potest, quam molesta decessio. Hanc senten- 

20 tiam significare videtur Laconis ilia vox ; qui, 
cum Rhodius Diagoras, Olympionices nobilis, 
uno die duo filios victores Olympiae vidisset, ac- 
cessit ad senem, et gratulatus, Morere, Diagora, 
inquit, non enim in caelum ads c en sums es. . 

Magna haec et nimium fortasse Graeci putant, 
vel turn potius putabant ; isque, qui hoc Diago- 
rae dixit, permagnum existimans tres Olympio- 
nicas una e domo prodire, cunctari ilium diu- 
tius in vita, fortunae objectum, inutile putabat 

so ipsi. Ego autem tibi quidem quod satis esset, 
paucis verbis (ut mihi videbar), responderam ; 
concesseras enim, nullo in malo mortuos esse. 
Sed ob earn causam contendi, ut plura dicerem, 



TUSC. quaestiones : §§40,41. GO 

quod in desiderio ct luctu haec est consolatio 
maxima. Nostrum enim, et nostra causa sus- 
ceptum, dolorem, modice fcrrc debemus, ne 
nosmetipsos amare videamur. Tlla suspicio in- 
tolerabili dolore cruciat, si opinamur eos quibus 
orbati sumus, esse cum aliquo sensu in iis malis 
quibus vnlgo opinantur. llanc excutere opinio- 
nem raihimet volui radicitus ; eoque fui fortasse 
longior. 

A. Tu longior? Non mihi quidem ; priori 
enim pars orationis tuae faciebat, ut mori cupe- 
rem ; posterior, ut modo non nollem, modo non 
laborarem. Omni autem oratione illud certe 
perfectum est, ut mortem non ducerem in malis. 

§ 41. 

31. Num igitur etiam rhetorum epilogum de- 
sideramus ? An jam hanc artem plane relinqui- 
mus 1 

A. Tu vero istam ne reliqueris, quam semper 
ornasti ; et quidem jure ; ilia enim te, varum si 
loqui volumus, ornaverat. Sed quinam est iste 20 
epilogus ? Aveo enim audire, quidquid est. 

31. Deorum immortalium judicia solent in 
scholis proferre de morte, nee vero ea tingere 
ipsi, sed Herodoto auctore, aliisque pluribus. 
Primum, Argiae sacerdotis (Cleobis et Biton) 
filii praedicantur. Nota fabula est. Cum enim 
illam ad solemne et statum sacrirlcium curru ve- 
hi jus esset, satis longe ab oppido ad fanum, 
morarenturque jumenta ; tunc juvenes ii, quos 
modo nominavi, veste posita, corpora oleo pe-30 
runxerunt, ad jugum accesserunt. Ita sacerdos 

advecta in fanum, cum currus esset ductus a 

4* 



70 TUSC. QUAESTI0NES : §41. 

filiis, precata a dea dicitur, ut illis praemium da- 
ret pro pietate quod maximum homini dari 
posset a deo. Post epulatos cum matre adoles- 
centes, somno se dedisse ; mane inventos esse 
mortuos. 

Simili precatione Trophonius et Agamedes 
usi dicuntur : qui, cum Apollini Delphis tem- 
plum exaedificavissent, venerantes deum, petie- 
runt mercedem non parvam quidem operis et la- 

10 boris sui, nihil certi sed quod esset optimum ho- 
mini. Ciuibus Apollo se id daturum ostendit, 
post ejus diei diem tertium ; qui, ut illuxit, 
mortui sunt reperti. Judicavisse deum dicuut ; 
et eum quidem deum, cui reliqui dii concessis- 
sent ut praeter ceteros divinaret. 

Affertur etiam de Sileno fabella quaedam ; 
qui, cum a Mida captus esset, hoc ei muneris 
pro sua missione dedisse scribitur ; docuisse re- 
gem, non nasci homini longe optimum esse ; 

* 20 proximum autem, quam primum mori. Qua 
est sententia in Cresphonte usus Euripides : 

Nam nos decebat, coetus celebrantes, domum, 
Lugere ubi esset aliquis in lucem editus, 
Hutnanae vitae varia reputantes mala ; 
At, qui labores morte finisset graves, 
Hunc omni amicos laude et laetitia exequi. 

Simile quiddam est in consolatione Crantoris; 
ait enim, Terinaeum quendam Elisium, cum 
graviter filii mortem maereret, venisse in psycho- 
30 mantium, quaerentem quae fuisset tantae cala- 
mitatis causa. Huic in tabellis tris hujusmodi 
versiculos datos : 

Ignaris homines in vita mentibus errant: 
Euthynous potitur fatorum munere, letho. 
Sic fuit utilius finiri ipsique tibique. 



TUSC. quaestiones : §§41,42. 71 

His et talibus auctoribus usi, confirmant 
causam rebus a diis immortalibus judicatam. 
Alcidamus quidam, rhetor antiquus, in primis 
nobilis, scripsit etiam Laudationem Mortis ; 
quae constat ex enumeratione humanoruin ma- 
lorum ; cui rationes eae quae exquisitius a phi- 
losophis colliguntur, defuerunt, ubertas orationis 
non defuit. Clarae vero mortes pro patria oppe- 
titae, non solum gloriosae rhetoribus, sed etiam 
beatae videri solent. Repetunt ab Erechtheo, i r ' 
cujus etiam filiae cupide mortem expetiverunt 
pro vita civium ; Codrum, qui se in medios 
immisit hostes veste famulari, ne posset agnosci 
si esset ornatu regio ; quod oraculum erat da- 
tum, si rex interfectus esset, victrices Athenas 
fore. Menoeceus non praetermittitur ; qui ora- 
culo edito largitus est patriae suum sanguinem. 
Iphigenia Aulide duci se immolandam jubet, ut 
hostium sanguis eliciatur suo. Veniunt inde ad 
propiora. Harmodius in ore, et Aristogiton ; 2() 
Lacedaemonius Leonidas, Thebanus Epami- 
nondas vigent. Nostros non norunt ; quos enu- 
merare longum est. Ita sunt multi, quibus vi- 
demus optabiles mortes fuisse cum gloria. 

§42. 

Quae cum ita sint, magna tamen eloquentia 
est utendum, atque ita velut superiore e loco con- 
cionandum, ut homines mortem vel optare incip- 
iant, vel certe timere desistant. Nam si supre- 
mus ille dies non extinctionem, sed commuta- 
tionem affert loci, quid optabilius ? Sin autem 30 
perimit ac delet omnino, quid melius quam in 
rnediis vitae laboribus obdormiscere, et ita con- 



72 TUSC. quaestiones : §42. 

niventem somno consopiri sempiterno ? Quod si 
fiat, melior Ennii quam Solonis oratio. Hie 
enim noster, 

Nemo me lacrymis decoret (inquit) nee funera fletu 
Faxit. 

At vero sapiens ille, 

Mors mea ne careat lacrymis: linquamus amici'3 
Maerorem, ut celebient funera cum gemitu. 

Nos vero, si quid tale acciderit ( ut a deo de- 
*o nuntiatum videatur ) ut exeamus e vita, laeti et 
agentes gratias pareamus ; emittique nos e custo- 
dia et levari vinculis arbitremur, ut aut in aeter- 
nam et plane in nostram domum remigremus, 
aut omni sensu molestiaque careamus. Sin au- 
tem nihil denuntiabitur, eo tamen simus animo, 
ut horribilem ilium diem aliis, nobis faustum pu- 
temus, nihilque in malis ducamus, quod sit vel 
a diis immortalibus vel a natura parente omnium 
constitutum. Non enim temere nec fortuito 

20 SATI ET CREATI SUMUS, SED PROFECTO FU1T 

QUAEDAM Vis, quae generi consuleret huma- 

NO ,* NEC ID GIGNERET AUT ALERET, QUOD, CUM 

EXANTLAVISSET omnes labores, tum incide- 

RET IN MORTIS MALUM SEMPITERNUM. PoRTUM 
POTIUS PARATUM NOBIS ET PERFUGIUM PUTEMUS. 

Quo utinam velis passis pervehi liceat ! Sin re- 
fiantibus ventis rejiciemur, tamen eodem paullo 
tardius referamur necesse est. Quod autem 
omnibus necesse est, idne miserum esse uni po- 
30 test ? 

Habes epilogum, nequid praetermissum aut 
relictum putes . 

A. Ego vero ; et quidem fecit etiam iste me 
epilogus firmiorem. 



TUSC. Q.UAEST10NES : § 42. 73 

M. Optime, inquam ; sed nunc quidem vali- 
tudini tribuamus aliquid. Cras autem, et quot 
dies erimus in Tusculano, agamus hacc ; et ea 
potissimum quae levationem habeant aegritudi- 
num, fbrmidinum, cupiditatum : qui omni e phi- 
losophia est fructus uberrimus. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



CICERO. 



Marcus Tullus Cicero was born at Arpinum 
( now Arpino), a town belonging to the Volsci, one of 
the tribes of Latium in the neighbourhood of Rome. 
His ancestors he traced back to Servius Tullius, 
the sixth king of the Romans, and of Sabine de- 
scent. His father was a Roman knight ; and his 
mothers name was Helvia. He was born B. C. 
105, and died at the age of 63 years. The poet 
Archies was his first teacher ; and Apollonius Molo 
of Rhodes gave him his first instructions in elo- 
quence. He was taught philosophy by Piso, and 
law by Mutius Sceevola. In the Marsian war, he 
acquired, under Sylla, a knowledge of the military 
art, and a taste for it. 

He was naturally of a feeble and delicate consti- 
tution. When the commotions at Rome were 
multiplied, under Sylla, he paid a visit to Greece, 
and there studied philosophy and oratory with the 
best masters at Athens. 

On his return to Rome, he soon became distin- 
guished as an orator, and was made Qusestor of 
Sicily ; where he behaved with great justice and 
moderation. After this, he passed through the 
offices of ^Edile and Praetor. In the year 62 B. C. 
he was raised to the office of Consul. In this 









76 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

office he greatly distinguished himself by the sup- 
pression of Cataline's conspiracy ; for which he 
was styled, by a grateful people, Pater patria. By 
the machinations of Clodius, whom Cicero had 
strongly opposed, the latter was proscribed. He 
retired to Greece ; and not long after was recalled 
with great honour and applause. After this he 
was sent into Cilicia as Proconsul. There he ob- 
tained victory over the enemies of the Romans, 
and a triumph was decreed him on his return to 
Rome ; which the factions of the city, however, 
prevented him from enjoying. 

In the civil war between Pompey and Caesar, 
which soon followed, Cicero espoused the cause of 
Pompey. After the victory won by Caesar at the 
battle of Pharsalia, Cicero met the conqueror at 
Brundusium, and was reconciled to him. From 
this time Cicero retired from public affairs to his 
country seat, and seldom visited Rome. After the 
death of Caesar, and when Antony came into 
power, Cicero withdrew once more to Athens ; but 
he soon returned to his country. When the tri- 
umvirate was formed by Augustus, Antony, and 
Lepidus, each agreed to sacrifice his own per- 
sonal enemies, in order to perpetuate their power. 
About 200 were doomed to death ; and Cicero was 
among the number placed upon Antony's list of 
proscription. Popilius Laenas was commissioned 
by Antony to destroy Cicero ; and the latter fled, 
in a litter, toward the sea at Caieta. He was, how- 
ever, overtaken by the assassins ; and when he put 
his head out of the litter, it was severed from his 
body by Herennius. This took place B. C. 43, 
when he was 63 years of age. The head and 



OF CICERO. 77 

right hand of the orator were carried to Rome ; 
and there, by order of Antony, whom he had so 
often annoyed, they were hung up in the Fornm. 
Fulvia, the wife of Antony, to shew her spite 
against Cicero, drew the tongue out of the mouth, 
and pierced it through with a hodkin. 

Thus perished the greatest orator, rhetorician, and 
philosopher whom Rome had ever produced ; and 
whom, in some respects, all subsequent ages have 
scarcely equalled. It has been finely said of Cicero, 
as an orator, that he had the strength of Demosthe- 
nes, the copiousness of Plato, and the polish of Is- 
ocrates. The first of these assertions, however, I can- 
not think to be true ; the second is more than 
doubtful ; the third may perhaps be conceded. 
His orations, which have come down to us, are 
fine examples of the ornate in speaking ; and some 
of them are exceedingly powerful in invective, and 
cogent in argument. It is impossible to read them 
without perceiving, that there could have been but 
one feeling and sentiment in those who originally 
heard them, viz. that of approbation and delight. 

His rhetorical letters and treatises will continue 
to be read and studied, with pleasure and profit, 
so long as rhetoric and oratory continue to be a 
study among men. His letters are a perfect model 
of ease, and grace, and playfulness, and zest, and 
learning, and affectionate feeling. Nothing of the 
kind, in all antiquity, can be fairly compared with 
them. 

His philosophical ivorks, however, are those w T ith 
which we are now immediately concerned. These 
are numerous, and consist of the following trea- 
tises : viz. Academicee Qsestiones ; De Finibus 



78 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

Bonorum etMalorum ; Quaestiones TusculanaB; De 
Natura Deorum ; De Divination e ; De Fato ; De 
Legibus ; De Officiis ; De Senectute ; De Amicitia ; 
Consolatio ; Paradoxa ; De Petitione Consulates ; 
Fragmenta. These constitute about one fourth 
part of his works which are still extant ; but all 
that we now have, are supposed by many to be 
but a small part (not one tenth) of what he ac- 
tually wrote. His whole works that remain, have 
often been published collectively; and most of 
them separately. The cheapest and most correct- 
ly printed edition which I have examined, is the 
small stereotype one of Tauchnitz at Leipsic. 

Cicero lived at a period when the Roman power, 
splendour, and influence, had arrived at the high- 
est point. Grecian arts and literature were very 
generally cultivated among the higher classes at 
Rome. Philosophy, also, had begun to find its 
admirers and devotees. But from the account 
given in the first part of the preceding Treatise, it 
is clear that no very great progress had been made 
in it by the countrymen of Cicero. It was not 
unnatural, therefore, when a man of so much am- 
bition as he possessed, was driven by the stress of 
the times away from public employments and hon- 
ours, that he should seek at once for occupation 
and honour, by cultivating a study which had 
brought so much glory to Plato, Aristotle, and 
many others of the Greeks. Early in life he had 
imbibed a taste for this study while at Athens. 
There he had learned to admire Plato ; and him 
he undertook to imitate, both in the matter and 
manner of many of his philosophical writings. 

With all his admiration of Plato, however, one 



OF CICERO. 79 

can hardly reckon him as belonging to the Acad- 
emy, lie may rather be named an Eclectic; for 
he read and studied all the different systems of 
philosophy within his reach, and adopted or re- 
jected what lie thought proper, by exercising his 
own judgment and reasoning powers respecting 
them. lie did not aim so much at going deeply 
into abstruse and difficult points, as he did at the 
popular exhibition of plainer and more practical 
principles. With him, tasteful representation, ani- 
mated description, wit, and extensive reading, were 
not secondary but primary objects in philosophi- 
zing. " Hanc enim [says he] perfectam philoso- 
phiam semper judicavi, qua? de maximis quaestioni- 
bus copiose posset ornaleque dicere ;" Tusc. Qujest. 
I. 4. Here we see the orator coming in and claim- 
ing his undiminished prerogative, even over the 
empire of philosophy. 

In his fundamental principles of speculative 
reasoning, Cicero appears to have agreed, for the 
most part, with the maxims of the New Academy. 
Probability, arising out of subjective conviction, 
seems to have been the ultimatum to which he ex- 
pected to arrive, in any case of a speculative na- 
ture. Hence we find him, in the preceding treatise, 
(after having cited that part of the speech of Soc- 
rates before his judges which has reference to a 
future existence, and expressing his admiration of 
it), declaring that what Socrates last of all said, 
was not inferior in point of excellence to any thing 
in his wdiole address ; and this w 7 as, that ' the gods 
only know whether it is better for a man to die 
than to live, for no man can know this.' i In so 
saying,' adds Cicero, * Socrates exhibits his own 



80 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

peculiarity, i. e. to affirm nothing ; which he pre- 
served even to the last.' Supra § 36. In his mode of 
discussion Cicero imitated the Greek philosopher, 
even where his convictions appear to have been 
somewhat strong. 

But it was only in the speculative parts of phi- 
losophy, that Cicero admitted and cherished this 
half skeptical spirit. In matters of duty and right, 
i. e. of morals, he came very near to the Stoics ; 
who seem to have been the most rigid moralists 
and casuists among all the ancient sects of phi- 
losophers. 

As Cicero had read and studied almost every 
thing then extant in the Greek and Latin languages, 
on the subject of philosophy and morals ; and as 
he was exceedingly fond of imitating the dialogues 
of Plato, and of representing the different sides of 
almost all questions ; so his works contain a great 
store house of materials for the history of ancient 
philosophy, and one without which there must 
have been many more chasms than there now are. 
The general accuracy of his representations are 
not called in question ; and his fair-mindedness, for 
the most part, can not well be impeached. He 
even carries this, in one point of view, to excess. 
In his dialogues, he introduces contending parties ; 
makes them speak their sentiments and views ; 
and then quits the subject without any full and de- 
cisive critique upon what they have said. His 
apology would probably be, that his own mind was 
in doubt. " Cicero", says Tennemann very truly, 
" was like a physician who sees the disease, but 
being unable to discover the cause of it, he cannot 
apply the appropriate remedy." The distinguished 



OF CICERO. 81 

Roman philosopher did indeed well know, that 
speculation and doubt, according to the fashion of 
the day, were endless ; but how to terminate many 
of the great disputes, was beyond his power to 
divine. Light from heaven was needed, to dispel 
darkness like that in which the heathen world 
was enveloped. 

On no question agitated by philosophy, without 
the light of revelation to aid it, can a deeper in- 
terest be felt by the inquiring Christian moralist 
and theologian, than on the question, Whether the 
soul is immortal? The first book of the Tusculan 
Questions contains a compressed and concentrated 
representation of all Cicero's views and specula- 
tions, relative to this all-important subject. How 
is it possible, that any one who has the spirit of 
inquiry within him, should not be curious to know 
what the first writer and philosopher of the an- 
cient Roman nation thought and said, in relation 
to such a subject? All that can be wanting to 
create an interest in such an inquiry, as I would 
fain believe, is, that the means of prosecuting it 
in an intelligible way, should be put within the 
power of discerning readers in general. 

The remarks which I have to make on the 
weight of Cicero's arguments, and on the state of 
mind in which they seem to have left him ; as also 
the comparison of his views with those which the 
Gospel discloses ; I reserve to the closing part of 
the present volume. 

In the mean time, it is proper to observe here, 
that the first book of the Tusculan ' Questions, 
contained in the preceding pages, is in itself a 
complete treatise, and not at all dependent on the 



82 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CICERO. 

other four books which follow. This first book is 
entitled, De Contemnenda Morte ; but this sub- 
ject gives way very naturally, after a little discus- 
sion at the outset, to the consideration of the per- 
petual existence of the soul. This does indeed con- 
stitute, in the writer's view, and in fact, one of the 
most important of all reasons, why death may be 
disregarded, when we are prepared to die. But it 
is the discussion of the point itself, in regard to the 
immortal nature of the sold, which constitutes the 
great charm and interest of the whole treatise. 
When this is completed, the writer relapses again 
into the more common and ordinary Stoical rea- 
sons for disregarding death. He is very ingenious 
and striking in the production of these. But our 
chief interest lies in the particular topic just men- 
tioned. It is impossible to read what Cicero has 
said upon this, without feeling the truth of the al- 
legation, that every man has within him the best 
arguments for his own immortality ; and that the 
image of God which is enstamped upon the soul, 
can never be so obscured, but that some bright 
spot will now and then gleam through all the 
darkness by which it is surrounded. Cicero did 
not attain to a perspicuous and explicit statement 
of this great fact ; but he has shown, in many a 
passage of his treatise, that it was the ground of his 
feelings and convictions. 



JTOTES. 



INTRODUCTION. 
§§ 1—5. 

The exordium to the Tusculan Questions is composed with grcnt 
skill and address. Although the study of philosophy had already 
become fashionable, to some extent, at Rome, when Cicero wrote 
this treatise, yet it could not he said to be in high repute, before 
the publication of this author's philosophical writings. With 
is Plutarch remarks in his life of Cicero (cap. 5), the terms, 
' to Greek study and pedant were synonymous. On this 
account. Cicero deemed it expedient to commence the Tusculan 
Disputations with a commendation of the study of philosophy, 
and an apology for his own devotedness to this pursuit. 

In order to accomplish this ohject in the most effectual manner, 
be begins with the declaration, that the Romans had always excelled 
the Greeks in all those undertakings in which they had seriously 
engaged. In the art of government ; in military affairs, both as to 
discipline and valour ; in steadfastness, constancy, probity, good 
faith, and magnanimity ; no nation was to be compared with the 
Romans. 

One point however remained, as to which the Roman philosopher 
felt bound to yield the palm to the Greeks, viz. learning. But here 
their superiority, he avers, is to be attributed merely to the fact, 
that the Romans had not entered into competition with them. He 
observes, that poetry had been cultivated among the Greeks, for 
many centuries ; but that it had come into repute among the Ro- 
mans, only quite recently. Every branch of literature needs to be 
encouraged and honoured, in order that it may flourish. Among 
the Greeks, not only poetry, but music, and geometry or mathemat- 
ics, were much honoured ; and consequently all these sciences flour- 
ished. 

Oratory, however, had always been applauded among the Ro- 
mans ; and hence many had excelled in it; and this in a measure 
scarcely inferior to that of the Greeks. 

Philosophy, so celebrated and so long cherished among the Greeks, 
had found as yet but few admirers at Rome ; and even those books 
which had there been written concerning it, displayed but little 
learning and acuteness. What others had not performed, Cicero 
himself now undertakes to do. But he does not design wholly to 
lay aside the orator, in doing this; for to descant on questions of 
moment, eopiose et ornate, he deems the perfection of philosophy. 
He intend.-, therefore, to imitate the example of Aristotle, who after 
bearing Isocrates speak, began to teach the principles of rhe tor 



84 NOTES ON § 1. 

in his own School. The method which he adopts, is the Socratic 
one, i. e. by way of dialogue, in which question and answer make 
up the discussion, and afford opportunity for suggesting objections, 
and also for the solution of them. 

Such are the contents of the first five sections, or the exordium 
of the Tusculan Questions. That they are well adapted to concili- 
ate the mind of a Roman reader, and to allure him to the study of 
philosophy by flattering his pride and exciting his emulation, is so 
very plain that it scarcely needs to be remarked. The whole shews, 
moreover, that Cicero was deeply versed in the literature of his 
times, and had read and studied the entire circle of Greek and Ro-, 
man authors. 

(1) # Cum .... liberatus, ivhen at length I was en 
tirely, or in a great measure, freed from the labours of 
pleading causes, and the duties of a senator. The 
phrase defensionum laborious, relates to the engage- 
ments of Cicero as an advocate, to defend those 
who were brought to trial before the courts at 
Rome. His duties as a Senator, also, were very- 
numerous and weighty. No member of the Ro- 
man Senate, for a long time, had as much influ- 
ence, or as urgent duties to perform, as himself. 

(2) Brute, i. e. Marcus Junius Brutus, lineally 
descended from L. Junius Brutus, who was the 
principal agent in expelling Tarquin the Proud 
from the throne of Rome, about 509 B. C. M. J. 
Brutus was himself the staunch defender of Ro- 
man liberty ; to save which, he assassinated Cae- 
sar in the Basilica of Pompey, after he had aspired 
to monarchical power. There appears to. have 
been great intimacy and confidence between Cice- 
ro and Brutus. Hence we find him so often men- 
tioned in the works of Cicero, and in a manner 
so highly honourable. It would seem that Brutus, 
who was remarkable for his attachment both to 



* The numbers included in parentheses, designate merely the 
number of the note, for convenience' sake. The place to which the 
note relates is designated by P. 13 etc. and by L. 1. etc., i. e. page 
13, and line 1, etc. 



NOTES ON § 1. 85 

literature ami to liberty, wss as much a confiden- 
tial friend of Cicero in literary studies, as in politi- 
cal life. 

Retenta ammo intermissa ; i. e. the remem- 
brance and love of his philosophical studies were 
cherished continually in his mind; although the 
pursuit of them had been necessarily remitted on 
account of the exigencies of the times, i. e. relaxed 
in some degree, less ardently followed ; and re- 
cently even intermitted or broken off, during a long 
interval, viz. by multiplied engagements in public 
business. 

(3) P. 13. I. 6. Artium . . . ratio et disciplina ; ratio 
means the grounds or fundamental principles, i. e. (as 
we say) the reason of any thing; and disciplina, the 
orderly and digested knowledge of it. — Ars means, 
as employed by Cicero here, and often elsewhere, 
any knowledge or science which is acquired by 
learning or discipline. — Graecis et Uteris et docto- 
ribus ; literis means here, iviitings, i. e. literature 
as contained in books ; doctoribus, teachers viva 
voce. 

(4) P. 13. 1. 13. Per se, by themselves, i. e. indepen- 
dently of the Greeks, or of any foreign aids. — Fecisse 
meliora, improved, rendered better. — Quae . . * elabora- 
rent, which they deemed objects worthy of their labours. 
— Nam . . . familiares, for the customs and rules of liv- 
ing, and domestic and household affairs. — Melius . . lau- 
tius, we maintain in a better and handsomer manner, i. 
e. we establish these things on firmer ground, and in 
a neater way. — Institutis et legibus, regulations and 
laws ; where the first seems to refer to rules or 
regulations adopted and established by custom, 
without the formality of a law having the regu- 

5 



86 NOTES ON §§ 1,2. 

lar sanction of a penality. — Virtute, courage, bold- 
ness , martial valour ; like the Greek aQSTij , — Dis- 
ciplina answers exactly here to our military word, 
discipline. — Jam ilia . . . conferenda ; he means to 
say, that the natural talents of the Romans surpass 
those of the Greeks, or of any other nation ; al- 
though in literature the former might yield the 
palm to the latter. — Gravitas seems here to mean, 
firmness or steadfastness of character. — Constantia, 
constancy, i. e. uniformity and consistency of con- 
duct. — Probitas, probity, uprightness of conduct. — 
Fides, faithfulness, viz. in keeping promises, trea- 
ties, etc. — Virtus here means what is equivalent to 
our English virtue, as a generic name for good 
qualities. — In ullis, sc. ullis populis vel gen- 
tibus. 

§2. 

(5) P. 14. 1. 3. Doctrina .... superabat, in learning 
and every kind of literature, Greece surpassed us; 
where doctrina embraces the means and ways of 
teaching, and literarum means the literature which is 
the result of the efforts of learned men. — In quo, in 
which thing, viz. in every kind of literature. — Erat 
.... repugn antes, it was easy to surpass those who did 
not enter into contest. —Nam, like the Greek yug, a par- 
ticle which is usually causal, but which not unfre- 
quently marks a transition, and is employed when 
the writer passes on to new matter, which is design- 
ed to illustrate or confirm what he has already said. 
So here, nam, moreover, i. e. I may add, let me add 
that etc. — Cum (= quum or quom) is here an ad- 
verb, meaning since, in as much as. — Antiquissimum 
. . . poetarum, the class of poets were the most ancient 
of the learned. — E doctis, out of, belonging to, of 



NOTES ON § 2. 87 

the learned; like the Greek Ac or £?, it makes 
(with the Ablative) a periphrasis for the simple 
Genitive. — Si qu idem, (often written si (juide^n), since. 
— Homerus fuit, Homer lived, where fuit lias the 
Mine sense as vixit ; and often so. — Et Hesiodus 
[fuit]. — Romano conditam, which, according to tra- 
dition, happened 753 years 13. C, i. e. before the 
Christian era. 

(6) P. 14. 1. 8. Homer and Hesiod are too well 
known to need any description. Archilochus was a 
native of Paros, one of the Grecian islands called 
Cycleides, near the month of the Aegean Sea. The 
ancients placed him by the side of Homer, in respect 
to genius and talent ; and they regarded him as the 
inventor of Iambic measure in poetry, which is so 
peculiarly adapted to satire. Only fragments of 
his works are now extant. His poems were re- 
markable for bitterness of spirit and obscenity. 
The time when he flourished, is designated by 
Cicero : Archilochus [lived] during the reign of 
Romulus, 

(7) Serius accepimus, i. e. we Romans receiv- 
ed it, after it had a long time been flourishing in 
Greece. — Annis enim fere DX., i. e. 510 ; the ex- 
act time when Claudius and Tuditanus, mentioned 
in the next clause, were Consuls, was A. U. 514 
(239 B. C.) ; and Cicero, no doubt, could have 
easily ascertained this. But observe that he says 
annis fere DX., i. e. about 510 years ; using the 
round number of ten, probably, instead of 14, 
which latter he has exactly expressed in Bruto, 
cap. 18. 

. (8) P. 14. 1. 10. The Livy here mentioned, is Livius 
Andronicus, the first Roman dramatic poet, who 



88 NOTES ON § 2. 

flourished about 230—240 B. C., and produced his 
first play in 240. The famous historian, Titus Livius, 
flourished about the commencement of the Chris- 
tian era. Fragments of the old Livy may be 
found in the Corpus Poetarum. — Fabulam dedit, 
composed, produced or published a play. — Fabula 
(from fabulor to speak) most naturally means, any 
kind of composition which is in the form of dialogue ; 
and, of course, this name is appropriate to tragedy, 
comedy, etc. Fabula also means, fable, romance, 
fictitious story, etc. ; but in the passage before us it 
means play, i. e. tragedy. 

(9) P. 14. 1. 12. Quintus Ennius was born at Ru- 
diae in Calabria, a province at the south-east extrem- 
ity of Italy. He died B. C. 169 ; and as he is said to 
have lived to the age of 70, his birth must have 
been B. C. 239; and the year when Livius fabulam 
dedit must therefore have been B. C. 240. En- 
nius was in high repute, as a poet, among the Ro- 
mans, in the days of Cicero and Virgil. He 
wrote Roman Annals, a poem in 10 books ; an ep- 
ic poem called Scipio ; satires, tragedies, comedies, 
etc. Of all his numerous works, only some frag- 
ments are left ; the best edition of which is that by 
F. Hessel, Amst. 1707. 4to. 

(10) P. 14. L 13. Plautus (Marcus Accrus), flourish- 
ed about 200 years B. C, and died about 184 B. C. 
He was born at Sarsina, a town in the extreme north 
of Umbria, a province in the north part of Italia Pro- 
pria. He possessed a rare talent for comedy ; and A. 
Gellins reckons the number of his plays at 130. 
Some twenty of his pieces are still extant, and 
have been often published ; e. g. by Brunck, J. A. 
Ernesti, Bothe, and others. We have seen above, 



NOTES ON § 2. 89 

that Ennius was born probably about 239 B. C. ; 
ami Plautus, who flourished about 40 yean after 

this, although younger than Knnius (as Cicero as- 
serts), could nor have been much younger. 

(11) P. 14. /. 13. Naevins (Cneius), a Latin poet, 
who lived during the first Punic war ; a poetical ac- 
count oi" which he wrote, and also comedies, tragc- 
tc. He is said to have died 203 B.C. ; 
so that we must cither construe the passage here as 
I have pointed it, or else suppose Cicero to have 
probably committed an error in reckoning Ennius 
(who was born 239 B. C.) to be older than Nae- 
vius. As I have pointed the text, the meaning is, 
that Livy composed plays about 510 U. C. (243 
B. C.) ; and that Xaevius did the same, about the 
same period ; which would agree well with his 
chronology, in the like w r ay, or to the same pur- 
pose, Nobbe points it, in his stereotype edition of 
Cicero by Tauclmitz ; putting C. Claudio . . . Plau- 
tus, in a parenthesis. 

(12) Sero .... recepti means, that the poets 
were not read, nor poetry cultivated, at Rome, un- 
til long after it had flourished in Greece. — In Ori- 
ginibus, i. e. a work of M. Porcius Cato, named 
Origines because a part of it was employed in 
tracing the origin of the several Italian cities. 
Cato was distinguished for his temperance, his 
rigid morals, his love of order, and his learning. 
He wrote history, treatises on husbandry, oratory, 
etc. One book on husbandry is still extant. He 
was the ancestor of the celebrated Marcus Cato 
Uticensis, a cotemporary of Cicero, who laid vio- 
lent hands upon himself, when he was about to 
fall into the hands of Caesar at Utica. This last 



90 NOTES ON § 2. 

individual is the subject of Addison's famous play, 
named Cato. The historian, M. P. Cato, died 
about 150 B. C. 

(13) P. 13. I. 15. Quamquam est . . . virtutibus, i. e. 
warlike virtues or heroic deeds were celebrated at 
feasts, by singing united with the music of the tibi- 
cen, flute or pipe. But although this was admitted in 
the revelry of a banquet, yet it was not considered 
respectable on other occasions; so the sequel teaches 
us. — Oratio Catonis, a speech of Cato, extant no 
doubt in the time of Cicero. — Aetoliam lies north 
of the Sinus Corinthiacus, and was conquered by 
the Romans in the time of Ennius. M. Nobilior 
was sent as Praefect over the conquered province, 
and took Ennius along with him, out of admiration 
for his talents and poetry. — Studia, partiality, favour, 
inclination, viz. to be devoted to poetry. — Nee ta- 
men sic etc., (for sic, many copies read si qui), nor 
even thus, i. e. nor even under all these disadvantages, 
did our poets who had much genius, fall short of a 
glory like to that which the Grecian poets obtained. 

(14) P. 14. Z.28. Polycletus, a celebrated statuary, 
and also painter, of Sicyon near Corinth, fl. 232 B. C. 
Parrhasius, a famous painter, of Ephesus, flourish- 
ed about 415 B. C. — Omnesque .... gloria, all are 
excited by glory to devote themselves to any pursuit — 
Jacentque .... improbantur, and those things are 
always neglected, which are disapproved by any na- 
tion. 

(15) P. 15. 1. 2. Nervorum . . . cantibus, lit. in the 
music of chords and voices, i. e. in the music of instru- 
ments accompanied by singing. — Fidibus. .. cecinis- 
se, have sung admirably in connection with stringed in- 
struments ; fides — is, Dec. III. — Discebantque id, 



NOTES ON §§3, 4. 91 

they learned that thinir, viz. the art of music. Apud 
illos, viz. the Greeks* — At nos . . . mod urn, but we 
have limited the hounds of this art by the utility of 
measuring and reckoning ; i. e. we assign to it mere- 
ly the honour of aiding us in the art of mensura- 
tion, and of making out an account of quantities. — 
Oratorem . . . autem eruditum, we, on the other hand, 
eagerly did honour to the orator, although at first he 
was not learned, but merely eloquent ; in later times, 
however, he was also learned. — Studiosum, devoted to 
study, a lover of study. — Cat.onem, i. e. the elder 
Cato or Cato Censorinus, the historian and orator. 
— Post, i. e. after the time of Galba, etc. — Lepidus, 
etc., viz. were studiosi, like Cato. — Gracchus, i. e. 
Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, sons of T. Sempron. 
Gracchus, famous for their eloquence and their se- 
ditious behaviour, both of whom perished by assas- 
sination, about 121 B. C. — Deinde ita magnos etc., 
i.e. after Lepidus etc., there arose orators so dis- 
tinguished, down to our own age, that we were very 
little, or nothing at all, inferior to the Greeks. 

§4. 

(16) P. 15. 1. 22. Jacuit, ivas neglected, lay, pros- 
trate. — Quae, i. e. philosophia. — Occupati, i. e. occu- 
pied in pleading causes, and in the labours of the 
senate-chamber. — Prosimus .. .otiosi, we may be use- 
ful to them, if in our power ,ivhen we are at leisure. — 
Optimis illis . . . eruditis etc., by those men, who mean 
well, but are not very learned. But who are referred 
to by illis ? Ernesti prefers to read illi ; and so 
Nobbe ; and to make this pronoun refer to the books 
mentioned. But if the reading illis be retained (as 
in the text), it must refer to some of the persons 



92 NOTES ON %4, 5. 

whom Cicero had just named ; or to some other 
persons well known to the writer, and to those 
whom he addressed. — Hominis est . . . Uteris, be- 
longs to a man who extravagantly abuses both leisure 
and literature. In saying this, he means to charac- 
terize the writers to whom he had just alluded ; as 
the sequel plainly shews. — Itaque etc., therefore, 
i. e. because they have so written, they read their 
books only in company with their own friends and 
disciples ; nor does any one touch them, besides those 
who wish for the same license in writing. — Si aliquid 
. . . industria, if we have added any thing to orato- 
rical reputation by our industry. With Rath, I 
prefer laudi here to laudis ; which Ernesti and 
Nobbe retain, but Carey has marked as suspicious. 
Oratoriae laudi means, the Roman reputation for elo- 
quence ; not merely the speaker's own personal 
fame. — Ilia, viz. those things which had been added 
to the oratorical fame of the Romans. 

§5. 

(17) P. 16. 1. 13. Docere . . . dicere, also began [like 
Isocrates] to teach young men to speak ; i. e. taught 
them the precepts of oratory, or acted the part of a 
rhetorician. In most editions dicere is in the place of 
docere, and vice versa. But as I am unable to 
make any good sense out of this, I follow the text 
of Ernesti and Carey. — Prudentiam, knoivledge, 
science, i. e. philosophical science, in this case. — 
Nee pristinum etc. , not to lay a aside our former 
study of oratory, and yet to become conversant with 
this more important and more fruitful art, viz. phi- 
losophy. — Scholas, disputations, conversazioni, con- 
versations on literary topics. The word would also 



NOTES ON § 5. 08 

designate public lectures or recitations* — Quid . . . 

possem, what I could do in thai way. 

(18) P. L6. /. 2(>. Senilis est declamatio, is the dec- 
lanudion of my old age ; which shews that the Tuscu- 
lan Questions were written In the latter part of Cic- 
ero's lilc. Indeed) ho scums to have betaken himself 
to the study of philosophy, on account of the exigen- 
cies of the times ; which, during the wane of his life, 
left little hope for a busy and ambitious politician, 
who was attached to the popular form of govern- 
ment. The whole of the introduction to the Tufi- 
culan Questions, is in fact, as has been above re- 
marked, an apology for the stiuty of philosophy, 
and an effort to render that an object of particular 
admiration and attention, which up to the period 
when he was writing, had not been generally in 
good repute among the Romans. — Declamatio and 
declamito designate the usage of extempore speaking 
and discussion on any subject proposed, for the 
sake of practice and improvement. As Cicero had 
done this to a great extent, when young ; so he 
apologizes as it were for himself, in respect to his 
resuming the practice when he is old. His mean- 
ing is, that in what he is about to say, he resumes 
the practice of his youth, in descanting upon vari- 
ous topics. 

(19) P. 16. 1.27. Ponere jubebam, I required [some 
one] to propose something ; i. e. some subject on which 
he would wish me to speak. — Disputabam here 
means to discuss in the manner of a disputation, viz. by 
question and answer, the proposing of objections 
and answering them, etc. — Itaque, and then, or 
and in this way. — Scholas plainly means here the 
discussions held during the five days mentioned, 

5* 



94 NOTES ON §§ 5, 6. 

So the Greek word axolrj is often employed. — Fie- 
bat autem ita, the matter moreover teas so managed, 
— Sic eas . . . narretur, I shall so represent them, as 
if the thing were acted out, and not merely narrated; 
he means, that he shall represent them in the way 
of dialogue, so that the speakers or actors may in 
propria persona (so to express it) present them- 
selves before the readers. — Exordium here means, 
the commencement of the discussion which follows. 

§6. 

This section is a true specimen of the Socratic 
method of reasoning ; in which Cicero makes the 
young man, (who had set out with the position, 
that death is an evil, and yet held that there is no 
existence after death), to contradict himself, or to 
maintain what is plainly absurd. The sum of the 
argument which Cicero employs, is, that if we are 
annihilated at death, it follows of course, that we 
cannot be miserable after this period ; because mis- 
ery denotes the existence of feeling and suffering ; 
and these necessarily imply the actual existence of a 
sentient being. 

On the weight and force of this argument, I 
shall not make any remarks here ; nor in other 
cases of the like nature ; so as to intermingle them 
with the Notes. I purposely reserve, for the most 
part, remarks of this nature, for insertion in the 
Appendix ; in which I intend to examine, at large, 
the arguments of Cicero respecting the immortality 
of the soul, and also to suggest some considera- 
tions, relative to the arguments usually employed, in 
modern times, in discussing this subject. Enough, 
for the present, that Cicero has here applied his 



NOTES ON § 6- 9") 

dialectical skill in such a way, as absolutely to 
hedge op the path, in which his Collocutor was 
beginning to proceed. 

(50) P. 17. /. 8. — 1. Two questions may be asked in 
respect to this letter; first, What is the meaning of 
it ? Secondly, is it a manu auctoris °) As to the first 
question ; the meaning of A. seems to be explained 
in Tusc. Quaest. Lib. II. 11 ; where Cicero, ad- 
dressing his Collocutor, says : " At tu, adolescens" 
etc. A. then means adolescens, young man. But 
this should not be understood of a mere youth, as 
Mated by us at the present time. Among the 
Romans, as among the Hebrews, a person was 
called young, until he was some thirty years of 
age. Now as Socrates was usually surrounded by 
disciples in younger life ; so Cicero represents 
himself, in the present case, as entering into dis- 
cussion with a friend of the like age, i. e. adoles- 
cens. Indeed, the congruity of the whole thing 
requires this. Cicero is the master ; they who 
question him, are his disciples or pupils. But the 
ordinary solution of A. , is by Auditor. So Carey 
and others. — As to the other question, the manu- 
scripts exhibit the initial letters A, and also M, 
which follow ; and there can scarcely be a doubt 
that they are a prima manu. 

It will of course be understood, after what has 
been said, that M. stands for Marcus Tullius Cicero. 

(21) P. 17. 1. 12. Est miserum . . . malum, it is a 
misery, then, since it is an evil. — Nemo . . . miser, all 
then are wretched, or there is no one who is not misera- 
ble. — Si tibi constare vis, if you ivill be consistent with 
yourself, you must grant, etc. — Nam si solos etc. ; 
the sentiment which follows is this : ' If you should 



96 NOTES ON § 6. 

affirm merely that all are miserable who have yet 
to die, then indeed, you would represent all the 
living as miserable, inasmuch as they must all die ; 
but still, should you go no further than this, death 
would at least be the end of our woes ;' nevertheless 
there would be an end of misery, in death. ' But since 
you represent the dead also as miserable, you make 
us all subject to endless misery. On this ground 
we must necessarily admit, that those who died 
one hundred thousand years ago, or rather, that all 
who have been born, are miserable.' 

(22) P. 17. 1. 32. Coeytus fremitus, the groanings 
of Coeytus. Coeytus, according to mythology, was a 
river in Hades, flowing from the Styx, and named by 
the Greeks, Kawviog, from vmivo}, to howl, to shriek ; 
i.e. Coeytus means, shriek-river. — Transvectio Ache- 
rontis, the passage over Acheron; which was another 
river in Hades, into which (according to Homer in 
Odyss. x. 513) Periphlegethon and Coeytus emptied 
themselves. The Greek ° Ax&qwv seems to be equiv- 
alent to 6 aym qzwv, i. e. ivhichjlows ivith griefs, or 
the river of sorroivs. 

Tantalus, well known in mythology, was a king 
of Lydia, the middle province on the western shore 
of Asia Minor, and son of Jupiter and the nymph 
Pluto ; also the father of Niobe, Pelops, etc., all 
famous in fable. He is represented as plunged up 
to the chin into a pool of water in Hades, and as 
tormented with an insatiable thirst; but the mo- 
ment he attempts to catch at the water, it recedes 
from him. Some add to this, that a bough of de- 
licious fruit hangs above his head, which, forced 
by raging hunger, he attempts to seize, but which 
is instantly removed beyond his reach by a blast of 



NOTES ON § G. 97 

wind. Others represent him as sitting under ;i 
«e that is suspended over his head, whieh 
every moment threatens to fall. This dreadful 
punishment was inflicted, because he served up his 
son Pelope for a supper made to regale 'the gods; 
which he did in consequence of doubts as to their 
real divinity, and in order to put their knowledge 
to the test. So Pindar ; but others say, it was be- 
cause he stole nectar and ambrosia from the table 
of the gods, and gave them to men ; and others 
assign still different causes. — Siti enectus means, 
dying with thirst, tortured to death with thirst. 

Sisyphus' story may be found in all the books of 
mythology. lie is represented as the son of Aeo- 
lus and Enaretta, and the founder of Eph} r re, af- 
terwards called Corinth ; also as the most crafty 
and subtle prince of all the heroic ages. His pun- 
ishment in Hades is represented, as a continual 
effort to roll a huge stone up a steep hill, which 
no sooner reaches near the top, than it is precipi- 
tated back to the bottom, and he commences his 
work anew. The cause of this punishment is usu- 
ally represented, to be a trick which Sisyphus played 
upon Pluto. At his death, he commanded his wife 
to leave his body unburied. When he came to 
Hades, he begged indulgence of Pluto, to go back 
and punish the seeming negligence of his wife, in 
leaving his body unburied ; and having obtained 
his request, he declined returning to the infernal 
regions. Pluto then sent Mars after him ; and 
when he was brought back by force, Pluto con- 
demned him to the punishment above stated. Oth- 
ii different causes. — Sudans nitendo, sweat- 
ing: because of strenuous exertion. — Hilum, in the 
least, in any degree. 



98 NOTES ON § 6. 

(23) P. 18. I. 5. Minos et Rhadamanthus, both (ac- 
cording to mythology) sons of Jupiter and Europa, 
and born in Crete. For their distinguished justice 
while kings on earth, the Greeks represented them as 
severe and impartial judges in Hades. Minos hears 
the causes of the dead, and shakes the fatal urn 
by which their destiny is determined ; and Rhada- 
manthus obliges them to confess their crimes, and 
punishes them for their offences. Cicero has here 
omitted Aeacus, son of Jupiter and Aegina, and 
king of Oenopia, who is often associated with Minos 
and Rhadamanthus. — L. Crassus . . . M. Antonius ; 
the former a celebrated orator cotemporary with 
Cicero ; the latter, Cicero's teacher in rhetoric, at 
Rome, otherwise called Marcus Antonius Gnipho. 

(24) P. 18. I. 7. Quoniam, whilst ; the sense 
seems to require quamquam, as Ernesti remarks ; 
but quoniam is admissible in the sense now given to 
it. — Graecos judices, i. e. Minos and Rhadamanthus, 
as stated above. — Tibi ipsi . . . dicenda, [but] the 
cause must be pleaded for yourself, the crown being of 
the highest value. The recent translation of Cicero's 
Tusculan Questions, by W. H. Main (Lond. 1824), 
renders maxima corona, before a very great assembly. 
The Latin is, no doubt, capable of this ; because co- 
rona sometimes means the crowd which surrounds or 
encircles any one. But I apprehend the true force 
and point of the expression here would be lost by 
such a version. I understand Cicero, who had just 
named Demosthenes, as alluding here to the last 
and highest effort of this masterly orator, viz., the 
celebrated oration tizqI crjeqpdvov, i. e. pro corona. 
Demosthenes, in the course of his life, had been 
twice crowned on the public stage at Athens ; once 



NOTES ON §6. 99 

for his services in expelling the Macedonian garri- 
son from the island of Enboeu: and the second 
time, after the 1p;ii: ; ;<* made With the Thebans. In 
334 J). C, Ins friend Ctesiphon proposed in the 
Senate, that Demosthenes should be again crowned 
for his many public, patriotic, and disinterested 
services. Aeschines, the rival of Demosthenes, took 
otfence at this, and accused Ctesiphon of acting 
unlawfully and precipitately in this matter, and 
demanded that he should be fined fifty talents of 
gold. From various causes, the matter did not 
come to trial until eight years afterwards ; when 
Demosthenes undertook the defence of Ctesiphon ; 
and through him, the vindication of his own claims, 
which was the real basis of the dispute. As this 
was the last, so it was the most perfect of all the 
public speeches of Demosthenes ; and indeed, it is 
the unquestionable master-piece of ancient ages. 
An allusion to these well-known facts I suppose 
Cicero to make, in the phrase maxima corona ; 
which, on the ground that I take, means as much 
as to say : ' The crown for which you will plead, 
will be one of the highest possible value ;' i. e. it 
amounts to the question of eternal happiness or 
misery. The idea of a great assembly before which 
individuals are to plead their cause at the bar of 
the judges in Hades, is, as it seems to me, foreign 
to the classical circle of thought ; although it is fa- 
miliar to us, because we insensibly transfer the 
scriptural account of the judgment day, to the hea- 
then judgment day. It comes, therefore, from the 
Scriptures, rather than from the Greek or Roman 
views of our final trial. 

P. 18. /. 16. Male, Hercule, narras, by Hercules, you 



100 NOTES ON § 6. 

speak unluckily. The reason follows : Quia . . . dice- 
rem, i. e. * I might exhibit some eloquence in des- 
canting against such things,' viz. if he had not been 
prevented by his Collocutor's disclaiming any be- 
lief in them. — Quis enirn non etc., who now could 
not [be eloquent] in a matter of this kind? Con- 
vincere, refute. 

(25) P. 18. I. 31. Nusquam . . . possunt, literally 
they cannot be nowhere, i. e. they must be somewhere. 
—Quid tandem, literally why at last ? Tandem, in 
such a case, is expressive of surprise or strong feel- 
ing ; just as we should say, in English : ' Why, in all 
the world ? Why, for heaven's sake ?' — Istuc, that ; 
put for isthoc. — Illas fortunas, those [splendid] pos- 
sessions, viz. such as the persons present were well 
acquainted with. — M. Crassus, i. e. Marcus Licinius 
Crassus, one of the triumvirate with Caesar and 
Pompey, who was exceedingly rich, and met with 
a violent death, B. C. 53. — Cneium Pompeium, 
Pompey the Great, as he has been called, one of 
the same triumvirate, who also came to a violent 
end. — Qui . . . careant, i. e. who die. 

(26) P. 19. 1. 15. Revolveris eodem, you move in 
a circle, i. e. you argue in one. — Etiam quod sen- 
tio, the very thing which, or exactly what, I think. — 
Esse . . . dicis, then you affirm that they [who are 
dead] do still exist. — Porta Capena, a gate of Rome 
so named, because it led towards Capena. — Calati- 
ni, etc., heroes and patriots of former days. 

The Greek al'impa means, in logic, whatever is so 
said, in a perfect sentence, that it must he either true 
or false. Prormnciatum, then, is a proposition, 
declaration, something declared. — Id ergo . . . falsum, 
is not exactly fitted to the previous omne pronuntia- 



NOTES ON § G. 101 

turn. The feet is, that the construction of the sen- 
tence is broken off by the parenthesis, and begun 
anew or resumed at id etc. -, that then is an ajjinua- 
tion, whidi it true or false. 

(27) P. 20. /. 30. Ecqui, sign of interrogation 
merely, like the word nuni ; do you see then, etc.? 
— Dejeceris, you have removed or abstracted, viz., by 
granting that men are not miserable after death, the 
sum of their misery is of course greatly diminish- 
ed ; as the sequel shews. — Haberemus in vita, i. e. 
we should, while living, have continually before us 
endless misery. — Calcem, literally the heel ; but 
here figuratively, the extremity. 

Epicharmus (fl. 440 B. C.) was a poet and Pytha- 
gorean philosopher, who introduced comedy at 
Syracuse, under king Hiero. He was imitated by 
the Roman Plautus. He is reported to have made 
a metrical version of the maxims of Pythagoras, 
and so to have divulged the secrets of the School. 
Aristotle and Pliny make him the inventor of the 
Greek letters % and &. — The phrase, acuti nee in- 
sulsi hominis, corresponds pretty exactly to our 
vulgar English expression, a shrewd sort of a man, 
and no fool of a fellow. At least, this gives the 
sense of the original, better than a more stately ex- 
pression. 

Ut Sic ul i, inasmuch as he is a Sicilian ; for Si- 
cilians were deemed, by the ancients, to be men of 
acute minds. — Quam, i. e. quam sententiam. — Me 
Graece . . . Latin e, that I am not any more wont to 
introduce Greek when speaking Latin, than I am to 
introduce the Latin while speaking Greek. — Jam ag- 
nosco Graecum, / readily discern the Greek ; but 
does he mean the Greek man, or the Greek Ian- 



102 NOTES ON § 6. 

guage that corresponded with what Cicero had 
uttered ? The latter, Mr. Main says ; and perhaps 
correctly ; for a reference to what precedes the 
quotation, would incline one so to think. Still it 
is possible, that the speaker means to say : " I dis- 
cern in this sentiment the shrewd Greek philoso- 
pher ;" but, on the whole, I cannot think this to be 
the probable interpretation. He seems to design 
to say, that although Cicero had not expressed the 
Greek, he could discern what it must be, or recal 
it to mind. The verse of Epicharmus, ' Ano&dvsw 
i) TE&vavaiy ov poi diacpsgsi, which Sextus Empiri- 
cus (ad vers. Mathemat.) has preserved, does not 
appear to contain the sentiment which Cicero has 
here expressed in Latin. — Perfice, accomplish or 
complete your undertaking, viz., to shew, that / 
should regard the not being obliged to die, as mise- 
rable. 

(28) P. 21. I. 18. Jam . . . est, that now is indeed no 
difficult task. — Cui proximum etc., near to which 
[death], is the time after death, etc. — Id est enim etc., 
for that [viz. dying] is coming to that etc. — Uberius is- 
ta, [speak] more at large upon these things. — Haec . . . 
assentiar, these thorny matters (as I confess) compel me 
before lean yield my assent to them. — Ut enim non effi- 
cias etc., although you may not effect, etc. ; tamen etc., 
yet you may succeed in shaving, etc. — Continentem 
orationem, continuous or uninterrupted speech. — Su- 
perbum . . . esset, that would be acting haughtily or 
arrogantly ; for esset Ernesti reads est, but (with 
Rath) I prefer esset. — Geram tibi morem, I yield to 
thee, or I grant your request ; mos sometimes signi- 
fies one's own will or opinion ; and gero, to manage, 
direct, etc. Hence gero tibi morem, literally / di~ 



NOTES ON §§ 6, 7. 103 

red my will for you, til>i being in the Dativus corn- 
modi, as irrammarians Bay. — Homunculus unus, lit- 
erally one little man, a man of an inferior cast, out 
of the many such who may be found ; Spoken in 
the way of modesty, so as not to protend to too 
much. — IVobabilia coujeeturA sequens, seeking af- 
ter what is probable by supposition, i. e. what We 
may suppose to he probable. — Tu, ut videtur, you 
may go on as you please ; we put ourselves in the 
attitude of listeners. 



§§ 7-9. 

In this discussion, (as should be done in all others which are 
properly conducted), the writer aims first at the definition of t he 
main word or topic : What is death 7 On the part of some, the an- 
swer to this is, that it is the separation of the soul and body, or the 
departure of the former from the latter. But others think that the 
soul perishes with the body. What then is the soul 1 A fundamen- 
tal question, of course, in the whole discussion. 

In the investigation of this topic, Cicero adduces (in § 7. § 8) all 
the various theories respecting the soul, which had been proposed by 
different philosophers ; and on some of these he makes remarks, in 
$9. Of course, all those theories respecting the soul, which make 
it a part, or the whole, of the body, e. g. the heart, the brain, the 
blood, or that harmony which is the result of all the parts of the 
body being united, are considered as affording no ground of hope for 
immortality ; because, if either of these theories be true, the soul 
must be dissolved with the body. Other theories, e. g. such as rep- 
resent the soul to be air or ether, fire or caloric, the perennial prin- 
ciple or cause of motion and life, etc., Cicero considers as affording 
some room for hope, that the soul, when it leaves the body, may find 
a permanent place of abode in the celestial regions. 

§7. 
(29) P. 22. L 17. Mors, etc., our first business, then, 
shall be, to inquire what death itself is, which seems to 
be something familiarly known. Animi, of the mind or 
soul, vovg, i.e. the intelligent and rational part of man, 
in distinction from his physical or bodily part. So 



104 NOTES ON § 7. 

evidently animus is used here. But this is not its 
only meaning, in the Latin language. (1) Sometimes 
it is equivalent to anima, i. e. the animating living 
principle of our nature, as contained in the breath ; 
and this seems to be the original sense of the word, 
inasmuch as it plainly comes from the Greek live* 
fxog, wind, breath, (2) Animus sometimes desig- 
nates also the faculty of thinking and desiring, in 
distinction from the material nature of the body, 
which of itself cannot do this. (3) Animus denotes, 
also, the faculty of perception and feeling, in distinc- 
tion from the material nature of the body ; and in 
this last sense, as well as in its second one, it be- 
comes equivalent to mind, as designating our intel- 
lectual and rational part. Like our English word 
mind, also, animus designates the various affections 
and exercises of the soul ; e. g. will, desire, courage, 
satisfaction, dissatisfaction, hope, manner of think- 
ing, opinion, thought, etc. That Cicero uses ani- 
mus, in his present book, for mind (in a generic 
sense), i. e. for soul, in distinction from, or in oppo- 
sition to, the body as material and mortal, is plain 
from the very nature of the case. Of course, our 
English word soul or mind, is a correct translation 
of it. 

(30) P. 22. I. 21. Occidere, to fall or to perish.— 
Alii statim, i. e. alii censent statim ; and so in the fol- 
lowing cases of the word alii.— Semper, i. e. semper 
permanere. The reader will note these three classes 
of opinion, respecting the duration of the soul. 
Next follows a recension of the different opinions 
respecting the nature itself of the soul. — Nasica . . . 
Corculum, ATasica (i. e. Scipio Nasica), that shrewd 
man, tioice made consul, [was surnamed, dicebatur 
implied] corculum, i. e. little heart. 



NOTES ON § 7. 105 

(31 ) 1'. 22. L 30. Empcdoclvs think*, that the soul is 
the blood suffused around the heart. Empedocles, who 
flourished about 444 B.C., was a native of Agrigen- 
turn, a town on the south- western shore of Sicily, a 
philosopher and poet, and one of the most distin- 
guished men in his country. He wrote a poem, in 
three hooks, on the Nature of Things ; which Lu- 
cretius had before him, when lie wrote his poem of 
the like kind ; but which, with all the other works 
of Empedocles, has perished, excepting only a few 
fragments. The story of Empedocles plunging 
himself into the crater of mount Etna, is probably 
a fiction. The sentence of Empedocles to which 
Cicero here alludes, is this: Ai t ua yag av&Qwnoig 
TieoLxagdiov £cttl voi]uu, for the blood around the 
heart of man is his mind; found in Stobaeus, 
Eclog. Pliys. p. 131. — Animi principatum tenere, 
to contain the principal portion, or the predominating 
portion of the soul. 

(32) P. 23. 1. 4. Declarat nomen, (Ernesti and Nob- 
be : declarant nomen), I understand as an elliptical 
expression, equivalent to hoc declaret nomen, this the 
name declares, i. e. the very name which we give 
to the soul, declares that it has been deemed the 
same thing as anima, the breath or vital principle. 
The sequel shews that such was the intention of 
the writer. — Agere animam means, the panting of 
a dying person, to pant for breath. — Animam ef- 
flare is to breath out one's breath, to expire. — Et an- 
imosos, i. e. et dicimus animosos, i. e. we speak of 
animosos, animatos, and also say, et animi sententid. 
— Bentley suspected the genuineness of the words, 
nam et . . . sententia ; Rath has so marked them in 
his edition ; but I prefer, with Nobbe, to mark 



106 NOTES ON §§ 7, 8. 

only, et animosos . . . sententia ; which I have in- 
cluded in brackets, in order to denote the probabil- 
ity that it is not genuine ; at least, it does not seem 
to be to the purpose of the author, and I can make 
no tolerable reasoning out of it. 

(33) P. 23. 1.8. Zenoni Stoico, a celebrated philos- 
opher, and founder of the sect of the Stoics, was born 
at Citium in the island of Cyprus, and died B. C. 
264, at the age of 96 years. He spent his literary 
life at Athens ; where he lectured on philosophy, 
in the portico called gtocc. Hence the name Stoic, 
given to him and his followers. Temperance, 
regularity of life, indifference to bodily appetites, 
and universal sobriety of demeanour, were virtues 
insisted on by the Stoics ; and which these philos- 
ophers, at least many of them, seem to have car- 
ried higher than any other sect of ancient Greece. 



(34) P. 23. 1. 9. Sed haec . . . vulgo, but that these 
things which Ihave mentioned, the heart, the brain, the 
breath, fire, [are the soul], is commonly [said] ; that 
is, these opinions are common. — Reliqua fere sin- 
guli, other things, for the most part, only particular 
persons [affirm]. — Ut multi ante etc. ; with Bentley 
and Rath, I begin a new sentence here. Ernesti 
puts only a comma after singuli ; but the nature of 
the sentence which follows, with the correlates 
ante . . . proxiine, shews that a different division 
should be made. — Ante, anciently, viz. before the 
time of Aristoxenus. Proxime, in later times. 

(35) P. 23 .1. 11. Aristoxenus, a celebrated musician, 
was born at Tarentnm of Calabria in Italy. He wrote 
453 treatises on philosophy, history, etc. He was a 



NOTES ON § 8. 107 

disciple of Aristotle ; and three books of his on mu- 
sic, are still extant, being the most ancient that we 
have respecting this science. He flourished about 
340 B. C. 

(36) P. 23. /. 13. Intontionem quandam, i. e. 
many of the ancients, and in later times, Aristoxcnus, 
[have said that the soul is] a kind of straining up or 
tuning of the body itself — Velut etc., as in singing 
and instrumental music, ivhat is called harmony, 
[arises from such a tuning] ; so from the nature 
and conformation of the whole body, its various mo- 
tions arise, like the sounds in music. — Hie, viz. 
Aristoxeuus. — Artificio suo, his art as a musician. 
— Et tamen . . . Platone, and yet he said something 
which, whatever it might be, was long before both 
said and explained by Plato. 

(37) P. 23. 1. 19. Xenocrates, born at Chalcedon 
in Bythinia, a town opposite Byzantium; a pupil of 
Plato, who succeeded Speusippus in the school of 
Plato ; and who was much respected and admired 
for his virtues. He died B. C. 314, at the age of 82. 

(38) P. 23. 1. 21. Pythagoras, a native of Samos 
one of the Grecian islands ; a disciple of Pherecydes 
of Syros ; a famous moral and political reformer, at 
Metapontum and Crotona, cities on the Tarentine 
bay, at the south-east part of the Italian peninsula, 
usually called Magna Graecia. His doctrine of 
metempsychosis and the harmony of the spheres, are 
well known. He applied the doctrine of even and 
odd, in numbers, to the system of the Universe ; 
and he drew from this application, the conclusion 
that this system is a system of relations, i. e. of 
numerical proportion ; and so, a living harmony of 
numbers. (See in Rixner's Geschichte der Philos. 



108 NOTES ON § 8. 

Vol. I., a detailed account of the music of the Spheres, 
in the Appendix.) 

(39) P. 23. Z. 20. Numerum seems to mean, har- 
monical conformity. If we ask for definite ideas, in 
respect to such philosophy as that of Pythagoras and 
his followers, with regard to this point, we may ask 
in vain. The general idea of this numerical conformi- 
ty seems to have been, a kind of harmonizing anima 
mundi, diffused through all its parts ; and of course 
existing in human beings. To explain it, Pytha- 
goras compared it to music, and to the harmony 
(as he named it) of even numbers. 

(40) P. 23. Z. 22. Ejus doctor, i. e. the teacher of 
Xenocrates.— Cujus ... in arce, ivhose ruling part, i. e. 
reason he placed in the head, as in a kind of citadel. — 
Et duas partes . . . locavit, and two parts he made sub" 
ordinate, viz. irascibility and desire, which he located in 
their appropriate places, irascibility in the breast, 
and desire under the region of the heart. For suis, 
Ernesti and others read disclusit ; with Rath and 
some of the Mss., I prefer suis. 

(41) P.23.Z. 28. Dicaearchus, of Messene in the 
province of Messenia, belonging to the south-west- 
ern part of the Peloponnesus, was famous for his 
knowledge of philosophy, history, and mathematics. 
There are no remains of his works, at present. — 
Quern . . . exponit, which, being pronounced at Cor- 
inth, he has published in three books. — Duobus, in the 
other two books. — Disserentem, who maintains. — 
Frustra que .... appellari, and that without any rea- 
son, animals are also called animated beings. — -Ne- 
que, i. e. he also maintains, that neither etc. — Animum 
vel animam, i. e. neither a rational soul, nor an ani- 
mating principle. — Quippe . . . quidquam, because 



NOTES ON §§8, 9. 109 

there is no such [anima], nor any thing whatever, 
unless etc. — Ita tiguratum, etC.,W formed, that by the 
tempering of mxturt it lives and thinks. 

(4*2) P. 24. /. 13. Quatuor ilia genera principiortita, 
those four kinds of dements, i. e. the well known four, 

viz. water, earth, fire, and air. — Cum complex- 

us, ichen . ... he had comprised or represented. — Et 
tain multa alia, and also jnany other things, viz., 
meminisse, etc. — ' ErdsXi^ttar, (so, on the whole, 
I think, with Rath, it should be written, and not 
as Ernesti writes it, ivihUyjia), means perennity, 
continued existence in the same state. EvTili'/ua 
means activity, action itself, or actual being. Nei- 
ther the one nor the other of these Greek words 
seem fully to correspond with Cicero's explana- 
tion. On the whole, however, his emphasis seems 
to lie upon continuatam and perennem, rather than 
on motionem; which w r ould favour the reading 
ivdeXs/sioiv. 

§9. 

(43) P. 24. 1. 24. Nisi sententiae, unless, per- 
chance, some have escaped me, these are nearly the 
[various] opinions inspecting the soul. After fere, 
the common editions insert omnium ; but the lead- 
ing Mss. omit it ; and so Rath. 

(44) P. 24. 1. 25. Democritus, of Abdera in Thrace, 
at the head of the Aegean Sea ; a disciple of Leucip- 
pus of the same place ; born B. C. 500 ; called ZZ&h 
Tad-log, because of his skill in logic, physics, ethics, 
mathematics, and music. The atomic philosophy 
seems Xo have taken its rise from him. Cicero 
seems hardly to represent his principles w r ith fair- 
ness here ; for he did not maintain the fortuitous 
concourse of atoms, but that their movements were 

6 



110 NOTES ON §9. 

necessary, and yet that they were directed by the 
laws of the highest reason. See Rixner, Geseh. 
der Philos. I. p. 128. 

(45) P. 24. I. 26. Levibus . . . corpusculis, smooth 
and round particles or atoms. — Apud istos, i. e. among 
philosophers of that class. — Confundere, to mix them 
together, to unite them. — Ut . . . disserantur, although 
those matters, viz. respecting the constituent ele- 
ments of the soul, be not discussed. — Nisi hac . . . 
hoc, unless this question [respecting the essence] of 
the soul be solved, now, if you think proper, [we will 
discuss] this. — Illud alias, otherwise [we will dis- 
cuss] that. — Efficiet enim ratio,/or reason will make 
it out. 

(46) P. 25. 1. 15. Si anima est, if it is air, breath. — 
His sententiis omnibus, according to all these opinions. 
— Sensus, sensation. — Non sentientis . . . intersit, but 
to one destitute of all sensation, there is nothing 
which can be of any consequence. 

(47) P. 25. 1 31. Num etc., i. e. can we defend the 
immortality of the soul more eloquently than Pla- 
to has done ? 

Sed nescio quo modo, etc. ; a remarkable and 
very affecting concession of an anxious and inquir- 
ing mind. All the arguments which a Plato and 
a Socrates had produced, could operate, as it would 
seem, with only a momentary and imperfect force 
upon it. With Plato's Phaedo in his hand, the 
inquiring youth could not, for the time being, gain- 
say his reasoning ; but so little of deep impression 
did it make, so little of solid satisfaction did it give, 
that at the moment when direct attention to the sub- 
ject ceased, then conviction and satisfaction began 
to diminish and to vanish away. Cicero does not, 



NOTES ON §§9, 10. Ill 

indeed, say this in his own person ; but can there 
be any good ground off doubt, that be drew the 
sentiment from his own leelinirsr 1 apprehend it 
inns: have been nearly or altogether so, with a 
' pari of the few aiDODg the heathen, who pro- 
id to believe in the real immateriality and im- 
ality of the soul. They saw through a glass 
darkly. They were groping their way by dim 
twilight. The gospel, and that only, has " brought 
and immortality to light," in a manner that ad- 
mits no doubt nor fears as to the doctrine of a fu- 
ture a) 

Dasne, do you not concede, either that the soul 
endures etc., or etc. — Do vero i. e. I grant ihat the 
one or the other of these must be true. 



§ 10. 

The first argument which Cicero employs to show that the soul 
survives the body, is an argumentum ad hominem ; i. e. it avails 
only for those who hold, as did the Greeks and Romans, that the 
gods now existing and immortal, were once human heings. For all 
such, Cicero says, the funereal rites and ceremonies that are prac- 
tised, will exhibit sufficient proof, that renowned men and women 
are regarded, end have from time immemorial been regarded, as 
surviving the destruction of the body. Thus it is in respect to 
Romulus, Castor and Pollux, fno, and others. Nay, even the Dii 
JIajores are all of the like class ; as their sepulchres in Greece, and 
their mysteries, clearly shew. We may add to these considerations, 
the general persuasion respecting the appearance of ghosts or 
spirits. 

(48) P. 26. 1. 23. Auctoribus. . . possumus, we 
can adduce the best authorities in respect to that 
sentiment which you wish should be established. — Et 
primum . . . antiquitate, and especially [we can ad- 
duce] all antiquity. — Ortu, its first origin. 

(49) P. 2G. 1. 30. Iusitum, implanted by na- 
ture. — Cascos, the same in meaning as antiquos ; 



112 NOTES ON § 10. 

but the word cascos is antiquated or obsolete, be- 
ing probably a Sabine word. — Esse in morte sen- 
sum, that there is sensation in a state of death, i. e. 
after death. — Turn . . . sepulcrorum, both from the 
ordinances of the priests and the ceremonies at 
graves, — Nee violatas . . . sanxissent, nor, when 
[these ceremonies] are violated, would they have 
punished with a scrupulosity which could not he ap- 
peased, Religio, conscientiousness, scrupulosity ; 
sancio sometimes means to apply the penalty of a 
law, i. e. to punish ; and this seems to make the 
best sense here. — Mortem non . . . delentem, that 
death is not such a destruction as removes and makes 
an entire end of every thing. — In ceteris . . . tamen, 
in regard to others, [this soul] is retained in the 
ground, but still continues to exist, 

(50) P. 27. I, 11. Ex hoc . . . opinione, accord- 
ing to this, and in the opinion of our countrymen, — 
Ennius, see Note 9. — Indeque . . . Hercules, and 
from thence Hercules, penetrating to us, and even to 
the ocean, i. e. the Atlantic. — He probably refers 
here to Gades (now Cadiz), situated anciently on 
an island in the Atlantic, some distance north of 
the straits of Gibralter ; where Hercules was wor- 
shipped, and where he probably once came. The 
pillars of Hercules are usually supposed to have 
been at Calpe (Gibralter) on the Spanish coast, 
and Abyla, opposite to it on the African side ; and 
it is said that these were erected, as the limits of 
the western world. But Silius Italicus calls 
Gades the cognata limina [mundi], Lib. III. 3 ; 
and Isidorus says ; iC Hercules, cum Gadibus 
pervenisset, columnas ibi posuit, sperans illic esse 
orbis terrarum finis, Orig. Lib. XIII. c. 15, Add 



NOTES ON § 10. 113 

to this, that. Oadcs is on the Atlantic ocean, in ac- 
cordance with the expression of Cicero, usque ad 
Oeeanum ; while Caipe (Gibralter) and Abyla are 
within the Mediterranean Sea. Gades, therefore, 
was naturally the extreme boundary of the west- 
ern world, as known to the ancients. — Tyndaridae 
fratres, the brothers, sons of Tyndar, i.e. Castor and 
Pollux, reckoned as tutelar Genii by the Roman 
people. The particular story to which Cicero 
seems here to refer, is, that Castor and Pollux 
were present, in the Macedonian war, at the battle 
in which Perses the king of Macedonia was con- 
quered, near Pydna, B. C. 168 ; that they not only 
assisted the Romans to obtain this victory, but 
appeared immediately after it at Rome, washing 
off from themselves the blood and dust of battle in 
the river Tiber, and announcing victory to the 
imperial city. The like phenomena, however, 
the mythology of the Romans often ascribed to 
the sons of Tyndar. 

(51) P. 27. Z. 20. Ino, Cadmi filia, etc.; the 
mythology is complex, and very absurd. ^ Athe- 
mas, king of Thebes in Boeotia, married first 
Themisto, by whom he had Phryxus and Helle. 
Pretending that Themisto was subject to fits of 
insanity, he afterwads married Ino, by whom he 
had Melarchus and Melicerta. Ino, becoming 
jealous of the first children of her husband, sought 
in various ways to destroy them. Juno, in re- 
venge for this, sent one of the Furies to the house 
of Athamas ; who taking possession of him, in a 
fit of madness he killed Melarchus the son of Ino, 
and pursued her, in his rage, in order to destroy 
her. She, flying with Melicerta in her arms, 



114 NOTES ON § 10. 

plunged into the sea ; upon which she was 
changed into a sea-goddess, whom the Greeks 
called A^vaod-m, and the Romans Matuia. Only 
free born, married women were permitted to enter 
her temple. The meaning of the name Matuia, 
seems to be morning-goddess, i. q. Aurora ; and 
so the Greek name would not unnaturally import. 
(52) P. 27. I. 22. Quid ? What more shall I 
say ? — Ne plures persequar, not to particularize 
any more individuals. — Caelum, commonly writ- 
ten coelum = ndlXog, hollow, concave, the welkin. — 
Ipsi illi . . . reperientur, those very individuals, viho 
are reputed as gods of a higher kind, will he found to 
have gone from us to heaven. This is a very strik- 
ing passage ; and it casts great light over the 
whole field of heathen mythology. All the objects 
of Greek and Roman worship were then, after all, 
mere men who had undergone ano&eocriq. " Cease 
ye from man," one might well say, with the sublime 
prophet of the Hebrews, to all the worshippers of 
such gods. But the purpose for which Cicero 
here makes such an appeal, is one of great inter- «, 
est. He is labouring to shew that the soul is im- 
mortal. How can this be done ? ' All antiquity,' 
says he, ' believed it. All that is done for the 
dead, shews that we consider them as still having 
a regard to their fame and honour. The fact, 
that even the gods themselves (to whom we pray 
and look for help, and whom we all believe to be 
immortal) were once men, shews that the souls of 
men are immortal ; yea, these gods, even of the 
highest order, we acknowledge, were once mere 
men.' The argument is certainly ingenious ; and 
to a popular believer in the Roman gods, was an 



NOTES ON § 10. 115 

argumentum ad hominem which was invincible. 
For u*, such an argument has no further weight, 
than as it goes to shew, how deeply seated in the 

human breast is the desire or expectation of an 
immortal existence. 

I) P. 27. /. 2(>. Majoruni gentium Dii, are Ju- 
piter, Neptune, Apollo, Mars, Vulcan, Mercury; 
Juno, Minerva, Ceres, Venus, Diana, Vesta; six 
male, and six female ones. So Ennius the poet 
reckons them by name. — Quere . . . Graecia, ask 
tcliose sepulchres are shewn in Greece ; i. e. in so 
doing you will find what I have said to be true. — 
Initiatus, i. e. initiated into the mysteries of the 
heathen mythology, become a (ivarriQ. — Mysteriis, 
the secret rites and doctrines of the heathen my- 
thology or theology, not disclosed to the world. 
These rites, no doubt, were symbols of things 
which the reputed gods had done and said ; and 
among these, was what had been done by them 
before their transmigration to heaven. On this 
account, Cicero appeals to the mysteries as a proof 
that what he had been saying with respect to the 
gods having 'once been men, was true. — Turn . . . 
intelliges, then surely will you understand, hoio 
widely this extends ; viz. how widely the declara- 
tion that he had made, may be extended, how 
generally true it is. Denique is sometimes em- 
ployed, as here, as an adverb of intensity, i. e. 
serving to strengthen the affirmation. 

(54) P. 27. /. 32. Physica, natural philosophy, 
physics. — Tantum . . . cognoverant, persuaded them- 
selves of only so much as they understood from the 
instructions of nature, i. e. their own internal na- 
ture. — Maxime uoctumis; night being the time, 



116 NOTES ON §§ 10, 11. 

when spectres have always and every where been 
supposed usually to make their appearance. — Ut . . . 
vivere, so that those seemed to live, mho had departed 
from life. 



§ 11. 

The second argument is, that as universal belief in the existence 
of the gods seems to be a good reason for admitting the truth of 
this ; therefore the general laws of our nature, that we should be- 
lieve in the doctrine of a future state, is a good reason for believing 
it. It is in reference to this, also that we grieve over our departed 
friends ; not because of disadvantages to which we are subjected, 
on account of their death, but because we think them deprived of 
the pleasures of life. 

Again; that all men have an instinctive apprehension or expecta- 
tion of a continued existence, is testified by all our arrangements 
for the future; by sepulchres, eulogies of the dead, heroic deeds, de- 
votedness to one's country, etc. Poets, artificers, philosophers, all 
develope the same trait of character, as to their expectations con- 
cerning the future. Especially is this trait discernible, in all those, 
vtrho attain to superior excellence in any way. It is therefore a 
law of our nature ,* and as such, its testimony must be regarded 
as true. 

This placed on its proper basis, is a fundamental argument in 
favour of a future state; as we shall see hereafter. The develop- 
ment of it, however, may be made, I think, in a more convincing 
way than is here done. But even here, are sparks of celestial fire, 
shewing that heathenism itself could not wholly deface the image 
of God, which he has given to our immortal part; at least, that it 
could not do this as to the mind of a reflecting man, such as Cicero 
was. 

(55) P. 28. I. 5. Ut . . . videtur, moreover, this 
seems to be adduced as a very solid reason. Ut is 
frequently used with the superlative of adjectives, in 
this way. Ernesti suspects the genuineness of it 
here, and thinks we should read at ; but this seems 
to be occasioned by overlooking the idiom. — 
Deorum opinio means, a belief that gods exist ; opin- 
io est means, one believes. — Collocutio hominum 
means, men's conferring together, i. e. in the way of 
conversation and discussion. Cicero means to say. 



NOTES ON § 1 I. 117 

that no conferences with each other, no natural 
agreement in consequence of such conferences, no 
ordinances, no laws, have occasioned men thus to 
harmonize in their opinions about the immortal 
gods; in other words, it all results from the teach- 
ing of nature merely; and so it results, of course, 
from a law of our nature. — Suo incommodo, on 
account of his own [personal] inconvenience or 
suffering. — Dolent, i. e. [some] grieve, etc. — Fletus- 
que maerens, and weeping occasioned by grief. — 
Idque sentire, and that he is sensible of this, viz. of 
being deprived, etc. — Nulla ratione . . . doctrina, 
independently of any reasoning or instruction, i. e. 
simply as guided by nature. 

(5(3) P. 28. I. 25. Tacitam, silently, i. e. without 
any teaching or leading, as above said. — Quod . . . 
sint, that all are solicitous, and peculiarly so, about 
those thi7igs which are to happen after they are dead. 
He means by this, to shew that a longing after im- 
mortality is a part of our very nature ; which no 
doubt is a real, as it is a most important truth. 

(57) P. 28. I. 28. Statius (Caecilius), a comic 
poet, cotemporary with Ennius, a native of Gaul, 
and originally a slave. He acquired great reputa- 
tion by his comedies, although his Latin was not 
pure. — Synephebis, a play so called, from crvi'sys- 
fioi, young persons of the same age. — Quid . . . perti- 
nere ? To ivhat does he look, unless that even after ages 
concern himself "? — Ergo . . . non seret, shall the indus- 
trious husbandman, then, plant trees, the fruit (or bemj) 
of which he will never see ; and shall not a great 
man establish laws, institutes, the republic ? — Nisi 
nos . . . cogitare, unless we have respect also to the 
future. — Illud ... natura, can you doubt it, that a 

6* 



118 NOTES ON §§ 11, 12. 

specimen of what is really natural, should be selected 
from that nature what is hest in its kindt — Carey 
and some others read thus: Quid illud ? num etc. 
with Rath I prefer, Quid ? Illud num etc. , as this 
construction of quid then accords with that in the 
preceding sentences. — Quam eorum,i.e.quam natu- 
ra.eorum, etc. — Munivisset, had prepared by his fa- 
mous deeds, etc. — Et religione . . . consecrata, and 
rendered sacred by the religious feeling of all men. 

§12. 

(58) P. 29. I. 16. lisdem ne . . . terminaretur ? 
Shall we say that their fame is terminated by the same 
hounds as their life ? — Licuit . . . Themistocli, The- 
mistocles might have enjoyed his ease ; where the con- 
struction is, licuit Themistocli esse otioso, esse tak- 
ing the same case after it as before it. — Ne et. . . 
quaeram, not to mention things ancient and foreign, — 
Quo dempto, which [expectation of the future] being 
taken away. — De principibus ; concerning leading 
men or rulers. — Funera fletu faxet, nor perform 
my funeral rites with weeping ; faxet (by syncope) 
forfecerit, — Vivu', i. e. vivus, the s being dropped 
by apocope. 

(59) P. 30. I. 3. Sed quid poetas? But why 
[should I speak of] the poets ^ — Ophices, artists. 
Phidias, a celebrated statuary of Athens, who died 
B. C. 432. By request of Pericles, he made a stat- 
ue of Minerva, and on her shield, he carved his 
own likeness, and also that of Pericles. For this 
he was banished from Athens; and he took his 
revenge afterwards, by making a statue of Jupiter 
Olympius, which eclipsed the glory of his Minerva, 
and which was kept by the people of Elis. — Et si 



CONTENTS OF §§ 13 IS. 1 19 

. . . maxime, and if we think those whose minds excel 
either in genius or virtue, to be pcculiartjj adapted to 
discern the power of nature, because they possess a 
nature best in iis kind. 



§§ 13—18.- 

But if the son I survives tho body, where and how docs it exist 
This question gives occasion tor a kind of episode here, on the met 
aphysical nature of the soul, and its linal place of residence ; which 
extends through VV) 13 — 18. Vulgar ignorance, says Cicero, has 
formed a multitude of superstitious notions on this subject ; because 
the uninformed minds of men were unable to contemplate any thing 
but sensible objects. Pherecydes first taught the proper eternity of 
the soul; which was received and supported by the disciples of 
Pythagoras ; from whom it passed to Plato. 

tematicians (natural philosophers) teach, that of the four 
elements, two, i. o. earth and water, sink downwards ; and two, i. e. 
fire and air, mount upwards. Now if the soul be igneous or ethe- 
rial ; and a fortiori if it be harmony, or that fifth something de- 
scribed by Aristotle; it will of course mount upwards on its depart- 
ure from the body, and ascend to a very great distance from the 
earth. But I do not see how harmony can arise from the disposition 
of members and the figure of the body destitute of a soul. It 
were better for Aristoxenus, who maintains this, to attend to his 
music, and leave reasoning on this subject to Aristotle his master. 
The fortuitous concourse of atoms, moreover as a cause of anima- 
ted being, we must at once reject. If then the soul consists of any 
of the four elements, it must necessarily be that of fire or air ; and 
of cour.se the soul, consisting of either of these, or of these com- 
bined, on quitting the body, must mount into the upper regions. 
And that the soul is of a warmer or more glowing nature than the 
concrete air, is clear from the warmth which it imparts to our bod- 
ies, that are formed from mere terrene materials. 

The soul, moreover, is capable of the highest celerity of move- 
ment ; by which it can easily permeate the clouds and vapours and 
obscurity which encompass the earth, and escape to that element 
in the upper regions, consisting of combined ether and solar 
warmth, which will be homogeneous with itself, and where it will 
find its own proper balance and resting place, and therefore ceaso 
to ascend. Here it will be nourished as the stars are, i.e. by 
the pure and glowing ether of those upper regions. 

Here, also, being freed from all bodily desires and lusts, and left 
to the full and free exercise of its own proper powers, it will gratify 
its insatiable thirst for knowledge; which, moreover, will ever be 
increased in proportion to its gratification and its opportunities. 
Even here, on earth, the beauty of the natural creation excites ar- 
dent desire for more extended knowledge. And if we now count 
it a great thing to visit the extreme western part of the Mediterra- 



120 CONTENTS OF §§ 13 18. 

nean and to see the Euxine Sea on the east ; what will be our rap- 
ture, when we can see all the regions of the earth, with all their 
various forms and productions ! 

Besides all this, we may consider, that at present we do not real- 
ly see any thing, with our physical organs. These are the mere 
inlets to the soul, which alone has any proper sensation. When 
we come, then, to those upper regions, where we shall no longer be 
impeded by any of our physical organs, nothing will hinder our 
having the clearest, most extensive, and altogether satisfactory 
views of every thing that we desire to know. — Such therefore will 
be the state and condition of the soul. 

And such being the case, I wonder at the strange conduct of the 
Epicureans, who think it a great thing to have freed men from 
the fear of the future, by shewing that the soul is of a mortal na- 
ture, and expires with the body. To^me the sentiment of Pythago- 
ras and Plato is much more probable and welcome. 

The objection made by many, viz. that they cannot understand what 
the nature of the soul is, which is eternal, amounts to nothing ; for 
can they understand any better what the soul is, when in the body, 
than when out of the body ? To me it is much more difficult to see 
how the soul can dwell in a habitation so foreign to its true nature, 
and how it is to contemplate it as freed from such a habitation : un- 
less, indeed, we are to maintain the position, that we can understand 
nothinglvhich we do not sec with our eyes; and then we must dis- 
believe the existence of the gods. Dicaearchus and Aristoxenus, 
because they could not tell what the soul is, rejected the idea of 
its existence. But when the oracle of Apollo said: JTvojd't G&av- 
7~OV, it meant, that we should become acquainted with our souls, 
which are our only proper selves. 

Thus it is evident that one main design of Cicero, in the whole of 
this apparent digression, is to remove objections against a future 
state, made from the nature and dwelling place of the soul. 

(60) P. 30. I. 26. Censebant, i. e. antiqui hom- 
ines censebant. — Frequens . . . theatri, the crowded 
assembly at the theatre. — Audiens . . . carmen, when 
hearing so pompous a strain. Adsum etc. , / am 
present, and I come from Acheron, ivith difficulty, 
through a deep and dangerous passage ; through 
caves formed by rough rocks, over-hanging, huge ; 
where the thick darkness of hell is immoveable ; rigi- 
da stat is a more probable reading than rigida 
constat ; the meaning of which former is stands 
stiff, i. e. immoveable. The quotation is from the 
Hecuba of Euripides, sub. init. — Valuit, did pre- 
vail— SublaXus, removed; the lexicons derive this 



NOTES ON § 13. 121 

word from folio, its own proper root being out of 
use. 

(01) P. 31. /. 5. Amnios • . . complecti, they 
could not form any idea of minds living by themselves, 
i.e. existing independently of the body. — Aliquam, 
some kind of. — Tota v&cvict, all the vexvla of Homer ; 
rtxvia means sacrifices and rites instituted for the 
dead, in order to evoke the shades (umbrae) from the 
under-world or Hades. — IVr/.gouco'Tela, places where 
necromancy was practised. — Faciebat seems hardly 
to admit of a tolerable sense here. It may be ren- 
dered, p roc ured, made, constructed, and possibly made 
of, i. e. esteemed, valued, for this is one of the senses 
of facio, even when it governs the Accusative ; al- 
though it is seldom so used in such a connexion. 

(0*2) P. 31. I. 9. Averni lacus was near to Cu- 
mae in Campania ; hence in vicinia nostra. By 
this lake is the fabled entrance to the infernal re- 
gions, as described by Homer and Virgil. — Ostio . . . 
Acherontis, at the mouth of the deep Acheron ; which 
(Acheron) here means a river in lower Italy that 
must have been near the lake mentioned; see 
Scheller's Lat. Lex. 

(03,) P. 31. I. 11. Fcdso sanguine; so I find it, 
in my edition of Ernesti's Cicero ; but in Rath, 
Nobbe, and Carey, salso sanguine. What salt 
blood is, I am unable to imagine. False blood 
may very easily be attributed to the imagines mor- 
tuorum, i. e. mere umbrae or shadows of living be- 
ings ; so Main in his version : " No mortal blood." 
— Ad oculos . . . referebant, i. e. they made every 
thing to be visible to the eye, in whose existence 
they believed. — Et . . . abducere, and to withdraw 
our thoughts from objects with which we are familiar. 



122 ' NOTES ON § 11. 

(64) P. 31. L 18. Itaque . . . dixit, therefore, 
(what in my opinion others had said for many ages, 
but, so far as we have it on record), Pherecydes of 
Syros first said, etc. Syrius (JZvqloq), belonging to 
Syros, one of the Grecian islands (Cyclades) , not 
far from Delos, and at the mouth of the Aegean 
Sea. The Syrius here has been mistaken by 
some for Syrus, a Syrian. Pherecydes was born 
about 595 B. C. and died about 535. He was 
the teacher of Pythagoras ; and with the disciples 
of Pythagoras, Plato was intimate ; so that the 
doctrine of the immortality of the soul seems to 
have come down from Pherecydes directly to 
Plato. — Antiquus sane ; for, as the above dates 
shew, Pherecydes was born almost 500 years be- 
fore Cicero. 

(65) P. 31. L 21. Meo regnante gentili, during 
the reign of my relative, (Main renders : my name- 
sake Tullus), i. e. during the reign of Servius Tul- 
lius, which was from 578 B. C. to 534 B. C. Serv. 
Tullius was the son of Ocrisia and Tullius, who 
belonged to Corniculum, a town of the Sabines, a 
little north of the river Anio, and but a short dis- 
tance from the city of Rome. In a war between 
the Sabines and Romans, Tullius the husband of 
Ocrisia was killed, and she came into the hands of 
Tarquin the Elder, king of Rome, as a slave. 
Tarquin presented her to his wife ; who brought 
up her son, Servius Tullius, in the palace. After- 
wards Tarquin gave to Tullius his daughter as a 
wife ; and upon the death of this king, S. Tullius, 
his son in law, was made king, and reigned 34 
years. He was the last of the ancient Roman 
kings, save one, viz. Tarquin the Proud ; who is 



NOTES ON §§ 13, 14. 123 

mentioned in the next sentence, and who married 
the daughter of S. Tullius, himself being Am 

grandson of Tarquin the Elder. Tarquin the 
Proud began to reign 534 & C, and 25 years af- 
terwards was expelled from the throne. Cicero 

retained the name of the family (Tallins), from 
which he was descended. 

(Go*) P. 31./. 23. Maxime confirmavit ; Pytha- 
goras and his disciples appear to have been much 
in earnest on the subject of the immortality of the 
soul. The so called Golden Verses of Pythagoras, 
(composed probably by some of his followers), 
bear testimony to a high state of moral and reli- 
gious feeling among this sect of philosophers. 
Plato seems to have fully imbibed their ardour 
in respect to these matters, by being conversant 
with them. — Superbo, i.e. Tarquinius Superbu?, 
the last of the ancient Romish kings ; as just 
stated above. — In Italiam venisset, i. e. to the 
south part of it, which was usually called Magna 
Grecia; where, particularly at Metapontum and 
Crotona on the Tarentine Bay, he effected a great 
moral and political reformation. All this line of 
coast w T as filled, in those days, with Grecian colo- 
nies. Hence the name, Magna Grecia ; which is 
mentioned in the next clause. — Tenuit, lit. restrain- 
ed, held hi ; but here it seems to mean, exercised 
influence over. — Cum . . . auctcritate, as well by the 
credit of his learning, as by his weight of character. 

§ 14. 

(67) P. 31. 1. 29. Redeo ad antiquos here means, 

that he reverts from the saecula postea which he 

had just named, to those individuals whom he had 

been previously mentioning. — Non fere reddebant, 



124 NOTES ON § 14. 

they scarcely rendered. — Nisi . . . explicandum, unless 
what might be explained either by numbers or by im- 
agery. He refers here to the Pythagorean nu- 
merical harmony of the universe (as stated in Note 
38); and as to descriptionibus, I understand it to 
mean, the mythic stories which were told concern- 
ing the souls of men after their decease, their 
transformations, appearances, etc. — Nisi quid dicis, 
unless you have some objections to make. — Et hanc 
.... relinquamus, and relinquish the whole of this 
topic in regard to the hope of immortality. Cicero 
seems to say this, rather for the sake of whetting 
the curiosity of his Collocutor, or for the sake of 
ascertaining whether he had succeeded so as to 
create in him an interest in the subject proposed. — 
Macte virtute, bravo! well done! lit. elevated in 
virtue ; used by way of exclamation. Macte seems 
to be a participle, from the obsolete rnago, maxi, 
mactum, to enlarge, to elevate, etc. 

(68) P.* 32. I. 13. Num . . . hoc, shall we then 
doubt this also, as we do most other things ? Quam- 
quam . . . minime etc., certainly this least of all, for 
mathematicians etc. Quamquam, to be sure, for- 
sooth, German freilich. — Terram . . . vocant, that 
the earth, situated in the midst of the universe, in re- 
spect to the compass of the whole heaven, acquires as 
it were the likeness of a point, which they [the math- 
ematicians] call tcsvtqov, the centre. Cicero seems 
plainly to refer here to the astronomical and mathe- 
matical speculations of the Pythagoreans, who pla- 
ced the earth in the centre of the universe, and made 
the planets and stars revolve around it in con- 
centric oii>its, which were circumscribed at inter- 
vals from each other that corresponded, as to their 



NOTES ON § 14. 125 

respective distances, with the tones in an octave 
of music; the seven planets (including the moon) 
making seven of these tones, and the fixed stars 
the eighth. — Quatuor . . . corporum, i. e. water, 
earth, fire, and air. — Ut. . .momenta, that they have 
powers anions: themselves, separate (as it were) and 
discrepant. — Terrena . . . ferantnr, that earthly and 
humid substances, by their own inclination and 
weight, tend, at equal angles, toward the earth and 
sea. As he had just said that the earth was a 
point in the center of the universe, so all ponderous 
substances in the atmosphere must converge toward 
it. Hence they do not move in a perpendicular 
direction, (one absolutely so considered), but be- 
ing convergent, they make angles (although equal 
ones, when compared with each other), in their 
descent toward the earth. If this be not the ex- 
planation, I do not understand the passage ; which, 
indeed, is quite possible ; dicat meliora, qui intelli- 
git! 

(69) P. 32. I. 23. Altera animalis, i. e. airy, at- 
mospheric ; for as anima often means air, so anima- 
lis may mean airy ; and clearly it does so here. — 
Illae superiores, viz. the earthy and humid sub- 
stances before mentioned. — Hae, viz. fire and air. 
— Rectis lineis, peipendicidarly, in distinction from 
the angidos above. — Sive . . . repellantur, either their 
nature itself seeking the upper regioiis, or because 
those substances which by nature are light, are repel- 
led by those which are heavy. 

(70) P. 32. I. 31. Animates is explained here 
by the author himself, i. e. spirabiles, lit. that which 

may be breathed, viz. 'air. Numerus here refers 

to the numerical harmony of the Pythagoreans. 



126 NOTES ON §§ 14, 15. 

— Quinta ilia, viz. that fifth principle maintained 
by Aristotle, as mentioned above (in § 8), and 
which, he there says, is vacans nomine. Cicero 
here means to say, that the principle is well un- 
derstood, although it is not called by a specific 
name. — Multo . . . efferant, they are much the more 
incorrupted and pure, so that they must recede to the 
greatest possible distance from the earth. But integ- 
riora and puriora, are of the neuter gender, and so 
do not agree with animi, in form ; the concord, there- 
fore, is made out by things implied after these adjec- 
tives, and things means souls ; just as in varium et 
mutabile semper femina. He means, that if we allow 
the soul to be either harmony or Aristotle's^/*^ prin- 
ciple, it is still more remote from ponderous matter, 
than if we maintain it to be air or fire. — Nee . . . . ja- 
ceat, and not such a mind as vegetates in the heart or in 
the brain, or as lies merged, in the blood of Umpedoc- 
les, i. e. in the blood surrounding the heart, as 
Empedocles maintained ; see § 7. 

§15. 
(71) P. 33. Z. 8. Quorum alter ... sen ti at, the 
one of whom [Dicaearchus], who could not perceive 
that he had a soul, seems never to hoive been affected 
with grief. Alter etc. ; see the mention of these, 
§§8, 9. — Quorum varia .... plures, whose various 
composition [viz. of intervals of sounds] may also 
constitute a variety of harmonies. — Membrorum . . . 
non video. The mere placing of the limbs, and the 
form of the material body, destitute of a soul, ( [quod 
corpus] vacans animo), I see not hoio they can make 

OUt a HARMONY. 

Sed hie etc., i. e. Aristoxenus had better yield 



NOTES ON §§ 15, IG. 127 

the point concerning the soul to Aristotle; and 
busy himself with teaching music rather than phi* 
losophy. — Praecipitur, is he admonished* — Quam 
pviaque norit etc. ; the originaJ Greek to which 

■) refers, is in Aristophanes (Vesp. 1422): 
"JmSzi t/.' tjv fxaoroQ udslr) TB/vrp, — Quam tanicn. . . 
volnit, which [concourse], as Dcmocritus ivould 

7, becomes warm and spirable, that is animate ; 
i. e. Dcmocritus supposes that warmth and breath- 
ing animation result from a fortuitous concourse 
of atoms. — Ex inflammata . . . constat, consists of 
ignited air. — Superiora . . . est, must necessarily tend 
towards the upper regions ; i. e. it must so do, be- 
cause of its rarified state. — Haec duo genera, viz. 
heat and air. — Hoc etiam, even on this account, viz. 
because they have the nature of heated air. — Ab 
his, i. e. warmth and air combined. — Aer, viz. the 
common atmosphere. — Ardentior, of a more igne- 
ous nature. — Ardore animi, with the glowing heat of 
the soul. 

§16. 

(72) P. 34. I. 19. Naturamque . . . agnovit, and 
attains to a native like its own, (i.e. to an element 
of the same nature), and discerns it. — Junctis . . . 
insistit, it takes its station among the f res, which are 
compounded of thin air and the tempered ardour of the 
sun. — Examinatus, weighed off,h(danced. — Et susten- 
tabitur etc. i. e. it is nourished by the pure ether and 
the genial warmth of the upper regions ; which also 
feed the stars. The planets, it will be recollected, 
were looked upon by Cicero and his cotempora- 
ries as animated beings, nourished by the warmth 
and etherial fluid of the upper regions. 



128 NOTES ON § 16. 

(73) P. 34. L 30. Facibus, lit. torches, i. e. pas- 
sions, warm desires. — Aemulemur, we envy. — Quo 
faciliorem . . . dabunt, in proportion as that ivill af- 
ford a more easy knowledge of heavenly things, in 
the like measure will they impart to us stronger de- 
sires of knowing them. 

(74) P. 35. I. 13. Patriam . . . excitavit, roused 
up that ancient philosophy, (as Theophrastus says), 
kindled ivith the desire of knowledge. Patriam et 
avitam, belonging to sire and grand-sire, i. e. ancient. 
— Fruentur ea, i. e. ea cognitione. Ostium Ponti, 
the mouth of the [Black] Sea. — Ea, i. e. ea navis. 
Cicero adverts to the ship, in which Jason and his 
companions sailed, in order to obtain the golden 
fleece at Colchis, which lies at the east end of the 
Black Sea. — Europam, etc. ; Europe and Lybia 
are divided by the Mediterranean Sea. The Greek 
and Roman poets often called Africa by the name 
of Lybia ; a name usually given, in later times, only 
to one province of Africa, on the confines of Egypt ; 
while on the other hand, Africa was often used 
only to designate Carthage. Hence rapax unda 
refers to the waters in the straits of Gibraltar or 
Fretum Gaditanum, which flow with great vio- 
lence ; for so the preceding freta ilia leads us to 
conclude. What is meant, is, to describe a remote 
country ; and this was reputed to be at the west- 
ern extremity of the earth. 

Circumscriptionem, compass. — Nos enim etc., 
for now we do not discern with our [bodily] eyes, 
those things which we see. — Ullus sensus, any sensa- 
tion, perception. — Viae quasi, etc. ; he means to 
describe the conformation of the external senses, 
which are a kind of inlet or road to the internal 



NOTES ON §§ 16, 17. 129 

ones. — Itaque etc., when buried in thought, or pre- 
vented by the power of disease, we neither see nor hear, 
although our eyes and ears are open and in a healthy 
condition; a remarkable fact, which shews, that 
what recent philosophy names attention, is neces- 
sary, in order that the mind should perceive ; and 
that perception does not belong to the bodily or- 
gans alone. This whole subject, (and a deeply 
interesting one 1 deem it to be), is finely developed 
by Dr Abercrombie, in his recent excellent work 
on the Intellectual Powers. — Quibus . . . adsit, by 
which, however, the mind cannot perceive any thing, 
unless it is itself present and performs the work. — 
Quinque nuntiis, i. e. the five senses. 

Cum quo . . . pervenerit, when the mind, set at 
liberty, shall have come thither where its nature tends. 
— Intersepta, hindered, obstructed. — Quale quidque 
sit, what every thing is. 

§17. 

(75) P. 36. I. 25. Quamvis copiose etc., how copi- 
ously could we descant on these matters, etc. — Tnsolen- 
tiam, the strange conduct, viz of the Epicureans, to 
whom he here adverts. — Naturae . . . admirantur, 
who wonder at- the knowledge of nature, which Epi- 
curus displayed. — Inventori et principi, i. e. to Ep- 
icurus as inventor, etc., of such advanced knowl- 
edge. — Ut Deum ; so Lucretius calls him, once and 
again, Lib. V. 8. — Terrore etc., i. e. from all fear 
of the future. 

Acherusia templa, the Acherusian temples, means, 
the infernal palaces or temples of Pluto, which 
stands for the domains of Pluto, i. e. Hades. Ache- 
rusia is an adjective formed from the noun Ache- 



130 NOTES ON § 17. 

rusia, which is the name of a lake near the mouth 
of the river Acheron, a sluggish stream, with an 
unhealthy country around it. In consequence of 
this, Homer, by a somewhat natural figure, repre- 
sented the river and lake as communicating with 
Hades. Popular superstition and poetic [tv&og 
confirmed and perpetuated this fiction. The river 
Acheron, thus made the subject of fable, is on the 
north-east part of ancient Greece, and flows into 
the Ionian Sea near the promontory of Chimerium, 
in Thesprotia, a province of the ancient Epirus, 
and a part of modern Albania. The adjective 
Acherusia means the same as belonging to Acheron 
(i. e. to heli), because of the connexion between 
the river Acheron and the lake Acherusia. 

Befeides the Achetton here mentioned, there was 
another river of the same name in Campania, on 
the west side of Italy, flowing into the sea between 
Misenum and Cumae ; also a lake Acherusia in 
Egypt, near Memphis, over which the bodies of 
the dead were conveyed, in order that sentence 
might be passed on them according to the life 
which they had lived. The poetic fiction of Ho- 
mer, however, seems to have arisen from the Ma- 
laria which surrounded the Grecian river Acheron, 
in its course through the lake Acherusia. 

(76) P. 37. I 6. Alta Orci, the depths of Hell— 
Palatia etc. ; so I read with Nobbe. I do not see 
how the usual reading : Orci pallida . . . ohnubila 
tenebris, etc. can agree together. — Ex quo etc. ; 
i. e. if the Epicureans must be first taught by 
their divine master (as they call him), before they 
can disbelieve these things ; then we can see what 
great geniuses they must have been. Of course, 



NOTES ON §§ 17, 18. (31 

this is said ironically. — Adepti sunt, i. e. i J l their 
own view they bave made some ihmous attain- 
ments, etc, — Quod ut ita sit, which, although it may 
be so, or which, granting it to be so, etc. — Ui enim, 
for although. — Frangeret, he would make me yield, 
subiiiir me, — Wile . . . videatur, he seems desirous 
ofptrsua iingothers, certainly to have persuaded him- 
sdf. 

§ 18. 

(77) P. 37. /. 2*2. Animosque . . . mulctant, and 
thus inflict the punishment of death upon souls, as if 

were condemned to capital punishment. — His, 
viz. to these persons who so think concerning the 
soul. — Vacans corpore, when destitute of a body. — 
Quasi vero etc., just as if they could understand 
ivhat [the soul] is, when in the body, ivhat Us shape, 
its magnitude, its place ; an observation replete with 
good sense, by way of reply to the skeptics in ques- 
tion ; who surely were no better acquainted with 
any of these things, than they were with the con- 
dition of the soul after it leaves the body. — Ut, si 
. . . aciern, so that, in case every thing in a living 
man which is now concealed, could be subjected to in- 
spection, [they could understand] whether the soul 
would become visible, or whether its tenuity is so 
great as to escape our sight. For vivo (according 
to Bentley and Rath), the editions in general read 
uno ; to no tolerable purpose. — Haec reputant isti, 
these considerations let those weigh well. 

(78) P. 33. I. 5. Quails . . . sit, what the soul in 
the body can be. — Tamquara doini, as in a strange 
home, i. e. in a home which is not congenial to its 
proper nature. Domi in the Gen. ; for, in the sense 



132 NOTES ON § 19. 

which here belongs to it, this is the common con- 
struction ; it is even doubtful whether it has a Nom. 
case, in this sense. — Q,uam qualis, thorn [the ques- 
tion], what etc. — Domum here in the Ace, because 
it means to its home. In answer to the question, 
zchither ? domum is employed. — Nisi enim . . . pos- 
sum us, for unless we are destitute of ability to under- 
stand what that is, which we have never seen, surely 
etc. After complecti, most editions insert non; 
which disturbs the sense. It is omitted by Rath, 
and a number of manuscripts. — Est illud . . . vi- 
dere, this indeed is the greatest thing of all, that the 
mind should he able to contemplate itself — Et nimi- 
rum . . . Apollinis, and in fact the direction given by 
Apollo [yvco&v osavTov] has the same force. — Cor- 
pora, mere physical bodies. — Non esset . . , sit, this 
precept would not belong to a mind of shrewdness so 
superior, that it would be attributed to a god. — Hoc 
est . . . cognoscere, probably a gloss from the mar- 
gin, and marked as suspicious in all the editions 
before me. 



§19. 

Having finished his remarks on the metaphysical nature of the 
soul, and the place where it is finally to dwell, Cicero returns to 
his main object, viz. to shew that the soul is eternal. This, he 
says, must be allowed, when we consider the fact that it is self- 
moved ; for that which is so, must have its original principles 
within itself, and can be affected by nothing extraneous. ^ Conse- 
quently, as such is plainly the case with the soul, it must be inde- 
structible and eternal, having neither origin nor end. The soul ia 
conscious of the fact, in respect to its being self-moved. 

On this third argument of Cicero, to prove the immortal- 
ity of the soul, (which seems to be a favourite one with Plato and 
with him), T shall make some strictures in the Appendix. For the 
present I would say merely, that it seems partly to be petitio prin- 
cipii, and partly to prove too much. 



NOTES ON § 19. 133 

)) P. 38. /. 30. Ne esse . . , sciet, can it [the 
soul] knoir that it does not exist f Ne . . . se ? Thai 
it is ?iof moved . } — Ratio, mode of reasoning, ratiod- 
nation. — Phaedro. i. e. the Phacdrus of Plato. — 
Quod autem . . . aliunde, what communicates mo- 
tion, or ichat receives it from an external cause. — 
Vivendi rincm etc., stews that the quod, at the be- 
ginning of the sentence, relates to an animated 
being. — Hie fons, i. e. this self-moving being is the 
source, etc. — Siquidcm, since. — Ut motus . . . mo- 
vetur, that motion is an original principle, inasmuch 
as it is self-moved, i. e. self- created or originated. — 
Id autem, i. e. id principium. 

(80) P. 39. /. 19. Vel concidat moveatur, 

should even edl heaven and earth rush together, it [the 
mass] must necessarily stand still, nor could it acquire 
any force, impelled by which it could be moved; i. e. 
so flu* as these consist of inert matter, they are 
wholly destitute of this self-moving power. — Motu 
. . . suo, its own interior [self-moving] power. — 
Quae . . . moveat, which [moves of itself], if there 
be any one of all [the objects of nature] that always 
moves of itself . — Neque . . . est, nor is it born, sure- 
ly ; it is eternal. — Plebeii, of the lower sort. — Una, at 
the same time, or at once. — Nisi . . . haec, unless you 
have some objections to make to these things. 



§ 20. 

The internal powers and attributes of the soul shew it to be 
partaker of a divine nature. If one could explain how such attri- 
butes originated, ho might then explain how they could perish. Or 
if the mere principle of animal life were all that is to be accounted 
for, then we might explain this, by comparing it with the principle 
of life in the vine or in a tree. Or if animal appetency alone were 
to be accounted for, then we might compare it with that of brutes. 

7 



134 NOTES ON §20. 

But it has qualities very different from all these. It has a memory, 
or a power of recollecting, which is houndless. Question a child in 
such a manner as to elicit his powers; and he will shew that ho 
has in himself the elements of all knowledge. These must be in- 
nate, belonging to the nature of the soul, and depending on the 
knowledge which it acquired in a pre-existent state. Its connection 
with the body would, in itself, never render it able to exhibit such 
powers. Nay, for a time this connection actually hinders the de- 
velopment of those powers. To learn, then, is nothing more than 
to recollect. 

Simonides, Theodectes, Cyneas, Charmadas, and others, have 
shewn to what a prodigious extent the powers of memory may go ; 
and so they have displayed the lofty attributes of the soul. 

(81) P. 40. I. 15. Videor posse dicere, I seem to 
he able to tell. Animum ipsum, [as to] the mind it- 
self. Tam . . . arboris, J should suppose the life of 
man to be supported by nature, as well as [the life] 
qf a vine, or of a tree. 

(82) P. 40. I. 23. Habet primum, [but] it [viz. 
the soul] has, first of all, etc. — Inscribituiyw entitled. 
— Pusionem, a little boy. — Eodem . . . didicisset, he 
comes to the same conclusions, as he would if he had 
studied geometry. — Sed . . . recognoscere, but recog- 
nizes them by recollection. — A pueris, from childhood. 
— Cumque nihil esset, and since it would be noth- 
ing ; i. e. provided it had not a previous existence, 
it would be nothing,' as the sequel shews. — Non 
potuit .... agnoscere ; the soul, pent up in the body, 
could discern none of these things, i. e. if it had 
not enjoyed a prior existence. — Cognita attulit, 
it [the soul] adduces things already known, i. e. 
[ergo] cognita attulit, viz. when it calls up its 
ivvolag. 

(83) P. 41. 1 19. Cum tam etc. , i. e. when it 
first comes to dwell in the body, its unwonted and 
confused habitation. — Sed cum etc. , i. e. after a 
while, when it becomes wonted to its place of abode, 
then it begins the process of recollection, etc. 



NOTES ON §20. 135 

These things arc ingeniously said, in order to ac- 
count for it, how children, in very early years, 
manifest so little knowledge. Whether the alle- 
gations will abide the test of philosophical scrutiny, 
is another question. 

(84) P. 41. 1.27. Simonicles, a celebrated poet 
of ( tog, who flourished about 538 B. C. He com- 

I elegies, dramas, and epic poems. He is re- 
ported to have added the letters ??, co, J, ip, to the 
Greek alphabet. He was famed, as it seems, for 
his memory. 

(85) P. 41. I 28. Thodectes (flor. c. 340 B. C), a 
Greek orator and poet, of Phaselis in Pamphyha, 
and a disciple of Isocrates. He was greatly re- 
nowned for an extraordinary memory. 

(8l>) P. 41. /. 30. Cyneas, of Epirus, (flor. c. 
280 B. C), the prime minister, and ambassador to 
the Romans, of Pyrrhus the famous king of Epirus. 

(87) P. 41. I. 30. Charmadas, I do not find 
particularly described. Metrodorus, here named, 
a friend of Mithridates king of Pontus, and sent by 
him as an ambassador to Tigranes king of Arme- 
nia. He died about 72 B. C. He was distin- 
guished for learning, and for his moral virtues. 

(88) P. 41. I. 32. Hortensius, a famous Roman 
orator, who left the stage of action not long after 
Cicero came upon it ; who took the place of Hor- 
tensius. The latter died B. C. 50. 



§21. 

Do such powers then belong to the brain, blood, heart ; to atoms, 
or earthly substance? Or lias the soul capacity, like a vessel, 
which holds all these things that it treasures up ? Or is it like 
wax, capable of receiving impressions .' Would a power, derived 



136 NOTES ON §21. 

in this way, be adequate to investigate hidden matters ; to in* 
vent names for things ; to bring men into civil society ; to invent 
literature ; to note the courses and stations of the planets and 
stars; to invent agriculture and the arts of life, to cultivate the 
more refined arts as matters of taste and improvement l The mind 
that can do all this, is like the mind of him who formed the heav- 
ens and the earth ; for such things cannot be done, except by those 
who bear his likeness. 

(89) P. 42. I 4. Ilia vis, i. e. that power of 
memory. — Amma. . . nescio, whether the soul is air 
or fire, I know not. — Nee me . . « nesciam, nor do I 
blush, like those [philosophers], to confess my igno- 
rance, when 1 am ignorant. — Capacitatem, power vf 
containing or holding. — Fundus, the ground, the ori- 
ginal substratum. 

(90) P. 43. 1.5. Institiones, stationary positions, 
standing still. — Omnes magni, L e. all who have 
done such things, are great.— Nam et etc, , the na- 
ture of sounds being discovered, and their variety well 
joined together, great delight is afforded to the ear, 
viz. by music. 

(91) P. 43. Z. 12. Et astra suspeximus, and we 
look up to the stars. — Non re . . . errantia, not wan- 
dering in reality, but merely in name. This refers 
to the astronomical views of the Platonists, viz. that 
the planets were guided by certain fixed and in- 
variable laws, in all their motions, although they 
were unable to tell what these laws were. Hence 
non re . . . errantia. — Is docuit . . . caelo, he teaches 
that his own mind is like that of him, who made those 
heavenly bodies, i. e. that man, is man in the im- 
age of God ; a truly noble sentiment, a gleam of 
the true doctrine of immortality ! — Nam cum etc. , 
when Archimedes reduced the movements of the moon, 
sun, and five planets to a circular one. — Ut . . . con- 
versio, so that one revolution would govern motions 



NOTES ON § 22. 137 

very unlike in respect to slowness or siviflness. — Si 
Vm .fieri sine (Jed Don potest, if ... nothing can be 
done tv it h out divine aid. 



§ 22. 

The higher flights of poetry and oratory, also, seem to require 
some divine efficiency. Philosophy, likewise, which teaches the 
worship of the gods and the rights of man, and modesty and mag- 
nanimity, and dispels darkness from our eyes as to the past and 
the future, in regard to things above or below — this must be a pow- 
er that is of a divine nature. I give no credit to the fable3 of the 
poets, concerning nectar, ambrosia, Ganymede, etc. |TV> live, to in- 
vent, to be wise, to remember, IS DIVINE ; and as the soul does 
this, it must be of a nature like to that of the gods. 

(92) P. 43. I. 25. Mihi vero etc., to me indeed it 
does not seem, that any of these more notable and il- 
lustrious achievements can be wanting in a kind of di- 
vine power ; so that I can scarcely imagine a poet to 
pour forth etc. The exact shape of the latter part of 
this, ill Latin, is thus : can be wanting in divine 
power, so that I can imagine etc. , i. e. can be so 
wanting in divine power, that I could even imagine 
a poet to be able to pour forth his sublime strains 
without such a power, etc." It is the shape only of 
the Latin sentence which makes any difficulty. 
The sense I have given in the first version. 

Haec nos etc. ; means that philosophy first 
taught religion to men. — Juventate, Hebe, i. e. 
youth, the goddess of youth. Mythology represents 
her as the daughter of Jupiter and Juno, and the 
cup-bearer to the gods ; also as blooming in per- 
petual youth. — Xec Homerum etc. ; i. e. he does 
not regard the mythological fables of the poets, as 
things worthy of credibility. — Ganymede is com- 
monly reckoned, in mythology, as the son of Dar- 



138 CONTENTS OF §§22 24. 

danus ; but there are discrepancies of opinion on 
this point. Cicero here makes him the son of La- 
omedon. — Diviaa . . . nos, i.e. 'it would have been 
more becoming, to have exalted us to a likeness 
with the divinity, than to have lowered him to our 
standard ;' a truly noble sentiment, a spark of im- 
mortal fire ! — Aut anima, either air. — Ilia natura, 
sc. deus. — Primum haec . . . animorum, this belongs 
especially to the gods and to soids. 



§23. 

The soul is a simple substance ; not concrete or mixed, and there- 
fore terrene. It is not even humid, or atmospheric, or igneous; for 
none of these elements can think, understand, or remember. It has 
a power peculiar to itself, and distinguished from all others, which 
must necessarily be divine, and therefore eternal. For of the di- 
vinity itself we predicate a mind free from all mortal composition, 
omniscient, and endowed with an eternal self-moving power. Like 
to this is the soul of man. 

(93) P. 44. I. 28. Consolatione, i. e. his treatise 
entitled Consolatio, written soon after the death of 
his daughter Tullia, and which contained most of 
the sentiments exhibited in this Disputatio. — Fla- 
bile, airy, atmospherical. — Concretione, composition, 
or materiality. — Motu sempiterno, i. e, with the 
perpetual power of voluntary motion, self-moving, 
i. e. having spontaneity. 



§24. 

If you inquire now, where the mind dwells, and of what form it 
is ; my reply is, that it matters not. If we cannot answer these 
questions, still we do know that it possesses sagacity, memory, 
power of motion, and celerity. Compare our knowledge of God, 
with that of our own souls. When we see the splendour and beau- 
ty of the sky; the changes of days and seasons ; the measured rev 
olutions of the sun ; the waxing and waning of the moon ; the 
courses of the planets ; the sky adorned on all sides with stars , 



NOTES ON § 21. 139 

the earth with its variety of climates, cold and hot, cultivated and 
uncultivated, barren and fruitful; the multitude of (locks and 
herds, for feeding anil clothing us, and assisting in our labours; 
man himself, contemplating the heavens and worshipping the 
gods ; and all the fields and seas ministering to his com fort— when 
ind numberless other like things, can wo doubt 
whether there is a Maker ami Goveruour of trie Universe 1 In 
like manner, when you seo memory, invention, celerity of motion, 
and all the beauty oi' virtue in man, you must acknowledge the di- 
vine efficiency of the mind. 

This passage reminds us forcibly of the statement made by Paul, 
in Rom. 1:20, viz. that "the invisible things of God, from the 
creation of the world, are seen, being understood by the things 
that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." What bet- 
ter commentary on this could be offered, than the passage in Cice- 
ro, the contents of which 1 have just stated. 

(94) P. 45. /. 22. Per te uti, to use with your 
liberty. — Ut se ipse videat, that it can see itself. — 
Non videt.. . suam, it does not see (ivhat is least of 
all) its own form, I take to be the language of the in- 
quirer or objector ; in answer to which is the se- 
quel. — Fortassc, it may be so. — Quamquam id quo- 
que, although [I might maintain] this also, viz. , 
that it does see itself. — Sed relinquamus, but let us 
pass this by. 

(95) P. 45. I. 32. Speciem . . . coeli, in the first 
place, let us look at the beauty and splendour of the 
sky. — Deinde . . . non possumus, then the great cel- 
erity of its revolution, so great that it exceeds our 
thoughts. — Commutationes .... quadripartitas, the 
changes of the seasons distributed into four. — Ad 
temperationem, to the appropriate condition — Qua- 
si .. . dies, designating the days as it were with cal- 
endar-marks. — Stellas, planets, as here used, i. e. 
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. — In 
medio mundi universi, in the midst of the whole uni- 
verse ; vide supra, p. 32.— -Sub axe . . . septem, placed 
under the axis towards the seven stars, i. e. placed 
in the northern hemisphere. The seven stars 
here named, are the septem Triones, as the Latins 



140 NOTES ON § 24. 

called them, which make up the constellation of 
the Great Bear. The Triones appear to revolve 
around the axis of the north-star; but whether 
Cicero was acquainted with this fact, I do not 
know. Axe means here the north pole ; so that 
sub axe posita ad stellas septeni, is as much as to 
say, placed under that pole, which is in the direc- 
tion of the seven stars, i. e. of the Great Bear. If 
Ave suppose axe here to mean the extremity or 
northern part of the axis, just as north pole does in 
English, (a supposition which is altogether proba- 
ble), then all those, in the view of Cicero, lived 
under (sub) the axis, who lived in the northern 
hemisphere ; for the north pole was above them. 
Or if we suppose Cicero to have had the idea, that 
the north star marks the direction of the earth's 
axis, then all in the northern regions live under it 
(in a literal sense), as it passes over them. In ei- 
ther case, we get the generic idea here aimed at, 
viz., the northern [temperate] zone. — Oris, regions; 
i. e. the two temperate zones. — *Avil%&ova, the op- 
posite or corresponding land or country. 

3 AvtI%&o)v, among the Greeks, literally meant an 
inhabitant of a corresponding and opposite zone; 
e. g. to those who live in the northern temperate 
zone, the inhabitants of the southern one are axlx&o- 
v$g. So Tatius (cap. XXX) : roug zartx didfisTgov 
iv ralg ofioioug '£wrcug oixovvrag, i. e. those who live 
opposite to each other in the like zones, viz. the two 
temperate ones. So Pomponius Mela (c. 1): " Re- 
liquae zonae [the temperate ones he now speaks of] 
paria agunt anni tempora, verum non pariter. An- 
tichthones alteram, nos alteram incolimus." 

In a like sense Antoeci (aviowoi,) is employ edi 



NOTES ON § 21. 141 

by the ancients. But, although most of the en- 
lightened men among the Greeks and Romans 
held the earth to be round, yet as they had a 
knowledge of only a small part of its surfa< < 
being habitable, and had no proper idea of its true 
motion, they in general strenuously denied the pos- 
sibility of . Intipodes. Some few only admitted it. 
In theory* according to their views, it might be pos- 
sible ; i ji fact it was deemed altogether improba- 
ble. See Cellarius, Orbis Antiq. I. 7. 

Ceteras partes etc. , as to other regions unculti- 
vated, because etc. ; i. e. the two frigid zones and 
the torrid one are uninhabitable ; for such was the 
view of Cicero and his cotemporaries. — Pampinis, 

with tendrils. Convestirier, i. e. convestiri with 

the antique termination. — Tanti operis et muneris, 
of so great a work and exhibition. The public shows 
given by individuals, the Romans often called mu- 
nera. The term as here used, alludes to these. 
Hence Moderator, in reference to muneris. The 
whole paragraph is a protracted and composite sen- 
tence, although not difficult to be understood. The 
grammatical and rhetorical construction of it, how- 
ever, as to accuracy, it would not be easy to vindi- 
cate. But the sentiment is exceedingly fine and 
noble. Indeed, I know of nothing which equals 
it, in the whole extent of the heathen classics, 
when considered in a religious point of view. 
7* 



142 NOTES ON § 25. 

§25. 

It matters not at all, then, as to the place or form of the soul. It 
cannot be concrete, or made by a combination of different substan- 
ces, and so it is not divisible, dissoluble, or perishable. 

Socrates, persuaded of this, sought not to avert death. He be- 
lieved that there are two ways in which the soul may depart; the 
one for souls contaminated with vices and crimes, a devious path, 
which leads to seclusion from the assembly of the gods ; the other 
for the upright and pure, who, having imitated the gods in this life, 
are associated with them in the next. The good man, therefore, 
should anticipate death with joy. Nor can he doubt that such 
should be the case, unless, like those who look steadily at the sun 
and lose their sight, he shouid dim his mental vision by too long and 
steadily contemplating the glories of his own mind. But still, we 
should not so desire death, as prematurely to seek it and procure it 
for ourselves. 

(96) P. 47. I. 9. In quo etc., i, e. you will ask: 
In quo etc. — Alias, elsewhere, or at another time. — 
Ubi sit, wherever it may be ; i. e. whether in the 
head, or heart, etc. — Quae est etc., language of the 
inquirer. — Propria . . . sua, peculiar, I think, and 
belonging only to itself, — Sed fac etc., but suppose 
it to be either igneous, or airy, etc. — In . . . cogni- 
tione, in acquiring a knowledge of the soul, however, 
etc. — Quin, but that — Nee . . . igitur, consequently it 
cannot perish. — Liberam contumaciam, a noble dis- 
regard. 

(97) P. 48. I. 17. Ut cygni, that as swans, etc. — 
Qua providentes etc., by ivhich [power of divina- 
tion] they foresee what good results from death. — De- 
ficientem solem, the departing or setting sun.- — In- 
jussu . . . demigrare, that we should depart hence 
without his order. — Nae, surely. Ille vir sapiens, 
the man who is wise. — Nee . . . ruperit, nor will he 
break off those chains of the goal, i. e. he will not try 
to escape from death. — Ut ait idem, i. e, Socrates. — 
Commentatio mortis, is a reflecting upon death, i. e. 
continued meditation upon this subject. 



NOTES ON §2G. 143 

§ SA 

Let Dl loam, then, by frequently abstracting find separating (as it 
were) the mind from the body, to prepare for death. What is thi* 
ce, but a kind of dying ? If we accustom ourselves to thin, 
when we are loosed from the body, we shall ascend with easier and 
more rapid flight, as we shall not be encumbered by bodily chain*. 
Should this be oar happy lot, then is it c-isy to show, not only that 
death will be no evil, but that it will be the highest good. 

- P. 49. /. 14. A re familiari, from onr domes- 
tic affairs. — Hoc commentemur, let us meditate on 
these things. — Disjungamus . . . mori, and let us sep- 
arate ourselves [i. e. our souls] from our bodies, [viz. 
by drawing them away from the objects of sense, 
and employing them in reflection] ; that is, let us 
accustom ourselves to die. Death is the separation 
of soul and body. Now as the soul, when it is 
abstracted from attention to the bodily senses by 
reflection, is as it were separated from the body ; 
so Cicero here calls this habitude of mind, dying or 
death. What was imperfectly effected by reflection, 
j. e. the abstracting of the soul from the body, is, 
according to him, only completed by what is usu- 
ally called death; an ingenious thought, if not a 
solid one. 

(99) P. 49. /. 23. Hoc et etc., this, viz. this 
practice of meditating, and living as it were abstract- 
ed from the body. — Erit . . . simile, trill be like our 
living in the celestial regions ; i. e. it w r ill be a state 
in which the soul lives by itself. — Minus etc., i. e. 
the soul, disencumbered of corporeal propensities, 
will wing its way to the upper regions with more 
ease and speed ; as the next sentence shews. — Ut 
ii, qui etc. , refers to such as have been bound 
with chains in prison, for many years, and who, 
when first set at liberty, are unable to w r alk with 
any facility. — Quo, etc. when we shall have come 



144 notes on §§ 26, 27. 

thither, i.e. into the celestial regions. — Vivemus, 
shall really and truly live, the word being emphatic 
here. — Haec vita, i. e. our present life on earth. — 
Si liberet, if circumstances permitted, or if it should 
he desired, 

(100) P. 50. I. 1. Nihil . . . relinquere, J wish for 
nothing more than to quit these present scenes, i. e. 
to die. — Veniet . . . properabis, the time will come 
and speedily too, [viz. when you will quit them], 
and [this], whether you delay or hasten it, — Ab eo, 
after abest is unusual in Cicero, and is here mark- 
ed as suspicious. — Ut verear . . . potius, that I sus- 
pect there cannot happen to man, not indeed any other 
evil, but no other good which is preferable, — Siqui- 
dem . . . sumus, since ive shall either become gods y or 
be associated with them. 



§27. 

But there are many objectors to the doctrine of the souPs immor- 
tality. Among these are the whole race of Epicureans and espe- 
cially my favourite Dicaearchus. The Stoics also allow us mere- 
ly a long life, like that of the crows. But as they allow the most 
difficult part of our problem, viz. that the soul can survive the body, 
it is not worth while to contend with them. More to our purpose 
is it, to consider the arguments of Panaetius, who, in other respects a 
zealous Platonist, differs from his master in regard to the soul, and 
strenuously denies its immortality on two grounds, viz., (1) The 
soul is procreated ; as is evident from the resemblance of children 
to their parents, both in body and in mind: and whatever is pro- 
created, is perishable. (2) The soul is affected with grief and dis- 
ease ; and whatever can be thus affected, is perishable. 

(101) P. 50. 1. 10. Adsunt enim, there are some, 
— Ego . . . posset, but I will never let you off, in this 
discussion, so that (uti) death can, with any shew of 
reason, appear to you as an evil. — Qui potes, how can 
you ? — Acerrime . . . disseruit, most strenuously, how- 
ever, has my favourite. Dicaearchas, descanted against 



NOTES ON §27. 145 

this immortality. — Lesbian, Lesbian, i. e. belonging 
to the island of Lesbos, the capita] of which was 
Mytilene, \\ here the discourses of* Dicacarchus were 
delivered. — Stoici . . . cornicibus, the Stoics, moreo- 
ver concede to us an enjoyment [of life], like that 
Ufkich belongs to the crows, 

(102) P. 51. I. 1. Labamus, we stand in doubt. — 
Id, viz. the changing of our sentiment, or rather, 
doubting in regard to immortality. — Simus armati, 
let us be armed, i. e. prepared to repel such doubts. 
Num quid . . .dimittamus, is there any reason ivhy 
we should not dismiss our friends, the Stoics ? i.e. 
omit auy longer discussion of their sentiments. — 
Istos vero ; them surely [we may dismiss]. — Posse 
animum etc., viz. that the soul, when disengaged 

from the body, can continue to exist. — Utse, inasmuch 
as etc. 

(103) P. 51. I. 17. Panaetius, a philosopher of 
Rhodes, about 138 B. C. He taught philosophy in 
Rome; and Laelius and Scipio Africanus were 
among his pupils. He wrote a treatise on the duties 
of man. Lempriere calls him a Stoic philosopher ; 
Cicero here makes him a Platonist, one point on- 
ly excepted. 

(104) P. 51. I. 20. Homerum philosophorum, 
the Homer of philosophers, i. e. of such a rank among 
philosophers, as Homer was among poets. — Nasci 
. . . appareat, that souls are produced, [he main- 
tains], because a likeness in those who are procreated, 
shews this ; which [likeness] appears, indeed, in the 
temper of the mind, and not in their bodies only. — 
Nihil esse etc., viz. that there is nothing ivhich suffers 
pain etc. — Quod . . . interiturum, that which may 
be sick, may die t 



146 NOTES ON § 28. 

§28. 

The answer to the above objections, is not difficult. (1) When 
we speak of the mind, we do not mean the seat of passions and de- 
sires and antipathies ; for these spring from the body. [So Plato ; 
who expressly distinguishes the rational soul from the animal one ; 
making the latter only to be the origin and seat of all such affec- 
tions.] (2) The similitude to parents, which appears in children, 
may be accounted for on the ground of animal or corporeal resem- 
blance only. For in the first place, the similitude is chiefly phys- 
ical. Secondly, what is not so, but apparently mental, has its 
origin in the manner in which the body affects the soul, and is 
owing entirely to this influence, which in various respects is great. 
We need not suppose, then, that similitude of mind arises from pro- 
creation. In fact, one might easily shew that ^the dissimilitude 
between parents and children, is even more strikingjthan the resem- 
blances ; e.g. this was the case with the nephew of Scipio Africa- 
nus, and the sons of many other famous men. 

(105) P. 51. I. 31. Sunt enim . . . dicatur, for 
they belong to a person who does not recognize, that 
ivhen one speaks respecting the eternal nature of 
souls, he speaks of the mind, ivhich is free etc. — 
Quas etc., which he [who defends the immortality 
of the soul], against whom these things are said, 
supposes to be removed and separated from the mind. 
— Jam similitudo, the similitude, now, [ahove spoken 
of] appears etc. — Et ipsi . . . sint, and as to souls 
themselves (Nom. independent), it is of great conse- 
quence in what body they are placed. — Multa enim . . . 
obtundant, for many things are derived from the body, 
which sharpen the powers of the mind ; and many, 
which blunt them. 

(106) P. 52. I. 11. Ingeniosos, men of genius, of 
distinguished talents. — Ut . . . feram, so that I, [who 
am not melancholy], must bear with it, to be called 
somewhat stupid. — Idque . . . constet, and as if the 
thing might be proved. — Quod si . . . similitudo, but 
if there is so much efficacy, in regard to cast of mind, 
in those things which spring from the body, (and these 
are the very things, whatever they are, which make 



notes on §§ 28, 29. 147 

similitude), this likeness of the soul creates no neces- 
sity why it should be produced by birth. 

(107) J'. ,V2. /. 21. Quaererem .... ncpos, / 
should like to inquire of him, which of his progeni- 
tors, Uw son of Africanus* brother resembled. This 
brother of [Scipio] Africanus was named Paullus. 
Nothing special is known concerning him. — Facie 
. . . similis, in appearance, so like his father ; in his 
manner of life, [like] all prodigals. — Cujus etc., 
whom did the grand-son of Crassus, that wise, elo- 
quent, and distinguished man, resemble ? 



§29. 

Having now accomplished tht most important object of this dis- 
cussion, viz., that of establishing the immortality of the soul, let 
us return to the first question with which our discussion commenced, 
viz., Whether death is an evil ? On the supposition, that we have 
not established our point in regard to the soul's immortality, and 
granting, for the sake of discussion, that the soul perishes with the 
body; still, death is not an evil. On the ground now taken, there 
is 710 sensation after death. If you say, that dying is in itself an 
evil ; I reply, that this is momentary ; that it is often attended with 
little or no pain; and sometimes even with pleasure. Then again, 
if you say : It is a departure from good ; my answer would be, that 
it is a departure from evil. Indeed, one might well weep overliuman 
life; as Hegesias and others have shewn. Many, convinced of this, 
have voluntarily procured their own death. In my own case, de- 
prived a9 I am of domestic comfort and public employment and 
honour, would not death loug since have been a deliverance from 
evil I 

(108) P. 52. I 28. Hoc nunc etc., we have pro- 
posed, that when enough may have been said respect- 
ing the immotiality of the soul, [we should then 
consider] whether there is any evil in death, even in 
case the soul does not survive, Alte spectare, are 
looking upwards. — Mali . . . sententia, what evil does 
even such a sentiment bring upon us ? — Insimulat, 
accuses, viz. he accuses Democritus of asserting it. 



148 NOTES ON §29. 

— Ut, although, or however. — Et falsum etc. , lit. J 
both think this to be false, and that it takes place, 
generally, etc.; where the first and second et 
answers to our in the first place, in the second place, 
etc. — Discessus ab etc. viz. departure, etc. — Quid 
ego etc., what, now, if I should mourn over the life of 
man ? I could do this truly, and of good right. — 
Etiam . . . miseriorem, also to make life itself more 
wretched, by mourning over it. 

(109) P. 53. 1. 33. Hegesias is called a Cyre- 
naican, because be was of the Cyrenian school of 
philosophy, i. e. the school established by Aristip- 
pus of Cyrene, about 392 B. C. Hegesias was the 
pupil of the younger Aristippus, son of the one 
just named. The character of his philosophy is 
described in the sequel. 

(110) P. 54. I. 3. Callimachus, a historian and 
satirical poet of Cyrene, who lived in the age of 
Ptolemy Philadelphus. — Lecto . . . libro, viz. Plato's 
Phaedo, on the immortality of the soul. — * Ano~ 
%aQTSQwv means, one destroying himself by inanition 
or starving. — Id facere, do the same thing, i. e. re- 
count the miseries of life. — Ille qui . . . putat, who 
thinks, that in general it is expedient for no one to 

continue in life. Etiamne . . . expedit, was not 

[death] desirable for us [me], who etc. — Certe . . . 
abstraxisset, death surely, if we had fallen before this, 
would have taken us from evils, not from enjoyments ; 
i. e. deprived of social and public enjoyments, as I 
have been, the evils of life, on the whole, have 
more than counterbalanced the good. 



NOTES ON § 30. 149 

§ 30. 

I and then a solitary instance occurs, liko that of MetelltM, in 
which \vc may say, that death is a departure from good. But how 
low ai Look at the examples of Priam, of Pom- 

pey ; and indeed noet examples arc of a similar nature. 

(Ill) P. 54. 1.16. Sitigitur . . . aeceperit, let 
there be, then, some one who has no evil to endure, 
who has received no wound from fortune. — Metellum 
etc., i.e. a numerous progeny honoured the peace- 
ful funeral rites of Metellus. — Hie si, i. e. Pria- 
mus. — Astante . . . laqueatis, while barbarian wealth 
continued, the carved and wainscoted walls. — The 
term barbarica we should hardly expect ; as the 
Trojans appear to have spoken the same language 
with the Greeks. Nevertheless Homer, Ovid, Lu- 
cian, and Euripides apply the epithet fia.Qjaoov to 
the Trojans; and this, because they were foreign- 
ers, and enemies to the combined body of the 
Greeks. — At certe . . . evenisset, but surely matters 
turned out better with him, i. e. better than is usual- 
ly suppossed or estimated. — Nee . . . canerentur, 
nor should those [words] be sung in such a doleful 
way, viz. , Haec etc. — Ista, i. e. ista fortuna ; see 
fort una above, in the first sentence of this section. 
— Tamen eventum etc. , a passage which has 
greatly troubled the critics. " Quid hoc est," says 
Ernesti, "nemo intelligat ; quis dicit eventum amit- 
tere ?" I construe it thus : If Priam had soon- 
er died, he would have escaped the occurences of life 
in general ; and even at this very time, he lost all sen- 
sation of evil. 

(112) P. 55. I. 8. Aegrotasset, hadbeen sick, but 
was now convalescent. — Coronati, viz. in token of 
joy. — Puteolani, the inhabitants of Puteoli. — Vulgo 



150 NOTES ON §§30,31. 

ex oppidis, in crowds from the towns. — Ineptum 
etc., a foolish business, to be sure, and savouring 
somewhat of the manners of the Greeks ; yet [one 
which is deemed] fortunate. — Utrum igitur etc. , had 
he died even then, would he have been taken away, etc. ? 
— Non liberi defleti, his children would not have been 
mourned for. 



§31. 

Let us examine the accuracy of the language which is applied to 
the dead, i. e. to the dead, on the supposition that the soul does 
not survive the body. Many say, mortuos vitae commodis carere, 
that the dead are deprived of the blessings of life. But thi3 can 
be truly and correctly said, only of those who have sensation ', and 
therefore it is incorrectly applied to the present case. 

(113) P. 56. I. 3. Quia. . .vis, because this mean- 
ing is connected ivith it. — Liberis, i. e. caret liberis. 
— Valet . . . vivis, this will apply to the living.— Qui 
rmlli sunt, i. e. who, (according to the opinion 
above stated) are non-entities. — Confirm ato . . . re- 
linquatur, that being confirmed, from which {if our 
souls are mortal) we cannot doubt but that destruction 
in death will be so great, thai not the least ground of 
suspecting any sensation is left. — Hoc . . . fixo, this 
then being well established and fixed. — Ut sciatur, 
viz. that it may be known. — Nisi . . . verbi, unless 
ivhen it is employed as saying carere febri (to be 
free from fever), with a tropical sense of the word. — 
Quod est malum, which [being deprived of good] 
is an evil. — Non indiget, does not stand in need of it. 

(114) P. 56. I. 30. Sed in vivo etc., but in re- 
gard to a living man, it is intelligible to say, that he 
is deprived of a kingdom. — In te, in regard to you- 
Satis subtiliter, with any good degree of accuracy. — - 



NOTES ON §§31,32. 151 

Potuisset in Tarquinio, it might [have been said] 
in respect to Tarquin, when etc. — Carere . . . est, for 
to he in want of (carere), has respect to a sentient 



§32. 

In accordance with my views concerning death, have nil the 
:mJ good men of ancient times acted, who put their lives in 
peril, or sacrificed thorn, for their country. If there he no exist- 
ence after death, then surely death was no evil to them. It mat- 
ters no more to as, what will take place centuries to come, than it 
does what took place centuries ago. 

(115) P. 57. I. 7. Quae, i. e. quae mors. — Ar- 
C5CM etc. , hindering that tyrant in his return, [viz. 
Tarquin the Proud], whom he had driven away. — 
Decius (Mus), a celebrated Roman Consul, who 
was slain in a battle with the Latins, 338 B. C. His 
son, Decius, fell in like manner, when fighting 
against the Gauls and Samnites, B. C. 296 ; Cice- 
ro says — decertans cum Etruscis. His grandson 
did the same, when fighting against Pyrrhus and 
the Tarentines, B. C. 280. 

(116) P. 57. /. 20. Cum vero, but since. — 
Quamquam . . . saepe, however, [I have already 
said] this quite too often. — Sed . . . mortis, hut [I 
have done so] because in this is the very ground of 
all the pusillanimity, zvhich arises from the fear of 
death. — Nee pluris . . . captain, nor is M. Camillus 
any more affected with the recent civil war, than lam 
affected until the capture of Rome, which took place 
while he was living:. L. Furius Camillus (B. C. 
365) appears to be the person here designed ; for 
it was he that drove away the Gauls under Bren- 
nus, who had invested Rome, and conquered the 
country. Cicero calls him Marcus Camillus ; it 
would seem by mistake. 



152 NOTES ON § 33. 

§33. 

But the brevity and uncertainty of life, and even the fact that we 
may be insensible after death, should not deter us from doing good 
to our friends and country, nor from love to virtue. If sleep, as 
some suppose, be an image of death; than is death an insensibility 
to evil. 

Why then should we deplore the time of our departure I Those 
who die in youth, suffer much less then those who die in advanced 
years. Priam wept oftener than Troilus. Old age takes away 
knowledge, which is the highest good of life ; and therefore it is 
not desirable. Even the longest life, is a mere nothing, compared 
with eternity. 

(117) P. 58. I. 12, Quo minus . .. consulat, that he 
should exert himself less, at all times, for the republic 
and for his friends. Quare lieet . . . consequatur, 
wherefore let it be that the mind is mortal, which deter- 
mines to strive for the attainment of eternal things ; 
not vnth a thirst for glory which you will never enjoy, 
but [with a thirst] of virtue, which glory necessarily 

follows, even when one does not desire it. — Alteri, i. e. 
mortui •; alteros, i. e. vivos. — Quam, i. e. quam mor- 
tem. — Ne sues . . . ipse, the very swine do not desire 
this ; not to speak of him or myself, i. e. of the quis 
quam just mentioned. Non modo ipse literally 
means, not he only, or not myself only and in the sense 
which I have given to it above, non modo is fre- 
quently employed by Cicero. 

(118) P. 58. LSI. Caria lies near the south- 
west extremity of Asia Minor. The fable is, that 
Endymion was loved by Diana, i. e. the moon or 
Luna, who paid him nightly visits, in order to kiss 
him while he was asleep. Some make his sleep 
to last a great number of years. The fable is mod- 
ified in a great variety of ways, among the ancients : 
and probably it had its origin in the fact that En- 
dymion, being a shepherd, cultivated astronomy, 
and spent much of his time in observing the moon ; 



notes on §§33, 34. 153 

in doing which he would of course very frequent- 
ly fall asleep. — Nonduni . . . experrectus, has not, as 
I imagine, yd waked up ; i. e. lie sleeps the sleep 
of death. — Cum luna laboret, when the moon is in 
tj'ouble. 

5 34. 

(119) P. 50. /. 8. Ante tempus mori, to die before 
one's time. — nulla praestituta die, no particular day 
[of giving it up] being fixed. — Quid est etc., why 
then should you complain, etc. ? — Ab hoc, i. e. from 
the child that perishes in the cradle. — Acerbius, 
more severely, sternly ; i. e. this is what such persons 
allege. — Hie etc. he too [i. e. puer parvus] was just 
hoping for great things, ivhich he was beginning to 
enjoy. — Aliquam . . . secus, that some part should be 
obtained rather than none ; why should it be otherwise 
in respect to life ? 

(120) P. 59. I. 22. Callimachus, see Note 110.— 
Multo saepius etc. Priam lived to a great age, and 
to endure many sorrows ; Troilus, his son, was slain 
by Achilles, in early life. — Nullis . . . jucundior, to 
none, if life should be still further prolonged, could 
it be more agreeable. — Prndentia, knowledge, science. 
— A tergo insequens, following on behind. — Nee 
opinantes, not at all expecting it. 

(121) Rata parte, /or his proportionate part. — The 
Hypanis was in Thrace (Roumelia), on the Euro- 
pean side, and is now called the Bog, and empties 
into the Borysthenes, and with it finally into the 
Euxine or Black Sea ; which last is the meaning 
of Pontus here, as indeed it commonly is. — Eo ma- 
gis, still more would such an insect die in decrepid 
old age, if the day w T ere solstitial, i.e. at the time of 
the summer solstice in J line, when the days are the 
longest. 



154 NOTES ON § 35. 

§§ 35—37. 

Let us then despise all fears of death, and place our chief happi- 
ness in contempt of human things and in the love of virtue. Let us 
not anxiously place our hopes on visionary expectations of happi- 
ness in the present world. The example of Theramenes, so loftily 
despising death, fills me with delight. 

The plea of Socrates also, before his judges, is quite to my pur- 
pose. He maintained, that whether death is an end of all sensa- 
tion, or a migration to another place, it is a great good. In the 
first case, it puts an end to our multiplied evils and sufferings ; in 
the second, it brings us into the society of the illustrious dead, and 
extends the circle and the means of knowledge. 

Others of the like character I might mention; e. g. the Spartan 
who treated with disdain the condemning sentence of the Ephori ; 
the Lacedemonians at Thermopylae ; Theodorus ; the woman of 
Sparta. 

(122) P. 60. I. 20. Si ante . . . sumus, if death comes 
before we have obtained ivhat teas promised by the 
Chaldeans, i. e. the fortune tellers or soothsayers, 
who predicted much prosperity to us. — Pendemus 
animis, toe keep our minds in a state of suspense, 
— Quam iter etc., how pleasant must be that journey, 
which being finished, no care remains, etc. 

(123) P. 60. /. 28. Theramenes, an Athenian 
philosopher, of the age of Alcibiades, about 420 
B. C. He was one of the thirty tyrants (so called) 
of Athens ; but he was opposed to the views of 
his colleagues. On this account he was accused 
by Critias, one of them who was exceedingly bitter 
against him ; and he was condemned to death by 
his inexorable judges, although Socrates interceded 
for him. — Non miserabiiiter, not in a manner that 
claims our pity. — Venenum . . . obduxisset, he had 
swallowed down the poison, with the greediness of one 
who is thirsty. — Ut id resonaret, that it made an echo, 
i. e. when striking the floor of the prison, upon 
which it was thrown. — Propino . . . Critiae, / drink 
health to the beautiful Critias. — Taeterrimus, most 
inimical. 






notes ox §§ 35, 3G. 155 

(134) P. 61. /. (>. Extremo spiritu, wUh his last 
breath. — Cum . . . contineret, when he already held, 
in his bowels, death commencing. — El, i.e. to Critias. 

I 36. 

(125) P. 61. /. 13. Eodcm . . . Theramcnes, 
[condemned] by the same wickedness of the judges, 
as T'taremenes by the tyrants. — Minoem, i. e. ad 
Minoem. — lie anil Rhadamanthus were the sons of 
Jupiter by Europe, and were Cretans ; Aeacus 
was the son of Jupiter and Aegina, and king of 
the island Oenopia, to which he gave the name of 
his mother, .legina. — Triptolemus, the son of Ce- 
reus king of Attica, hy Neraea. He became a fa- 
vourite of Ceres ; taught men agriculture exten- 
sively ; and after his death was advanced to di- 
vine honours. Socrates here reckons him as a 
fourth judge in Hades. 

(1*25) P. 0*2. I. 10. Judicio iniquo circumventos, 
etc. Palamedes, son of Nauplius king of Euboea, 
by Clymene. It was he who detected the feign- 
ed madness of Ulysses ; feigned in order to avoid 
going to the Trojan war. Ulysses afterwards, at 
Troy, caused money to be buried in the tent of 
Palamedes ; forged a letter as from Priam to Pal- 
amedes, requesting the latter to betray the Grecian 
army, and stating that he had stipulated to do so 
for the sake of the money. In this way Palame- 
des came to be unjustly condemned and put to 
death, by the Grecian chiefs. He is said to have 
invented the letters &, £, /, qp, of the Greek alpha- 
bet. — Ajax, after Achilles' death, contested with 
Ulysses for the armour of the hero ; and judgment 
being unjustly rendered in favour of Ulyses, Ajax 
killed himself. 



156 NOTES ON § 37. 

§37. 

(126) P. 62. I. 11. Tentarem etc., I should put 
to the test the knowledge etc. ; a thing in which 
Socrates, during his life-time, greatly delighted. — 
Summi regis, i. e. Agamemnon. — Ulysses is well 
known, in fable, for his skill and cunning. — Sysi- 
phus, see Note 22. 

(127) P. 62. I 28. Nae ego . . . malim, surely I 
should much prefer this state of mind, to the wealth of 
all those etc. — Etsi etc., however, as to his denying 
that any one besides the gods can know, he himself 
cbes know, viz. which is the best. — Suum illud, his 
own peculiarity. — Finis . . . potest, there can be no end, 
— Ephori, magistrates at Sparta, first created about 
760 B. C, by Lycurgus, resembling the tribunes*, 
at Rome, i. e. supreme censors of all public pro- 
ceedings. — Sine versura, without lending or borrow- 
ing. — Ut, inasmuch as. 

(128) P. 63. I. 28. Leonidas, the brave king of 
Sparta, and leader of the three hundred Lace- 
demonians who fell at the battle of Thermopylae, 
only one of them escaping. — Vigebant ; from this 
word, back to quid, included in brackets, the text 
has been suspected by some, and condemned by 
Bentley and others. 1 do not perceive any solid 
ground for difficulty with it. — Fortes et duri, rigid 
and severe. — Theodorus of Cyrene, a teacher of Plato 
in geometry. — Ista .... purpuratis tuis, threaten 
those dreadful things to your effeminate courtiers, 
clothed in purple. — Humine . . . putrescat, whether 
he rots on the earth, or in the air. 



NOTES ON §38. 157 

§38. 

(129) P. G4. /. 14. Cujus hoc dicto, viz. putres- 
cat. — In quo moritur, i. e. in the Phaedo of Plato, 
where his death is described. — Sicubi, i. e. si ali- 
cubi. — Durior, sterner. — Asperius, more roughly, — 
Sed . . . ponitote, but give me a staff ivith which I 
mcty go off. — Illi, [said] they. — Quid igitur, i. e. he 
replied : Quid etc. 

(130) P. 65. /. 8. Si quid ei accidesset, if any 
thing should befal him, i. e. in case he should die. — 
At ilia, i. e. she (Hecuba) who mourns over Hec- 
tor, in the play. — Passa aegerrime, / have suffered 
most wretchedly. — xiccius, the ancient Roman tragic 
poet, represents it better. — Et .... Achilles, and 
Achilles sometimes considerate. — Pressis . . .modis, in 
well-adjusted and mournful modulations. — Ne com- 
bustis, non extimescit, he fears not lest his burned 
[members should be abused]. — Siris for siveris, 
you will [not] let. — Cum . . . tibiara, when he pours 

forth such fine heptameter verses, at the modulation 
of the pipe. 

(131) P. 66, I. 11. Cum, when, or rather here, 
although. — Execratur, falls to uttering imprecations, 
— See the story of Thyestes and Atreus in Lem- 
priere. — Primum . . . Atreus, specially that Atreus 
may perish by shipwreck. 



§39. 

I am aware that burial and the corruption of the body, are shud- 
dered at by the multitude. But in respect to these things, mine are 
the sentiments and feelings of Socrates, Diogenes, and Anaxagoras. 
The plays are full of errors and lamentations, on these subjects; but 
without any good ground. How can a dead body be sensible of anj 
sufferings I 

8 



158 notes on §§39,40. 

(132) P. 67. I. 3. Magorum, of the magi.—Ryr- 
cania, in middle Asia, bordering on the Caspian Sea. 
— Optimates, domesticos, the nobles [feed] private 
domestic ones. — Cum suis . . . potest, when declining 
life is able to console itself ivith its own praises. — Ne- 
mo . . . munere, no one was ever short lived, who fully 
performed the duties of perfect virtue. — Parum diu, 
not a very long time ; which, with nemo, makes the 
sense above given. — Multa . . . fuerunt, many sea- 
sons, opportune seasons, for my death have occurred. 
— Quam . . . obire, which I could ivish I had under- 
gone. — Nihil . . „ vitae, for now nothing was to be 
gained ; the duties of life were accumulating. 

(133) P. 67. I. 32. Tamen . . . sequitur, yet it 
follows virtue, as a shadow [follows a substance]. 
— Verum . . . beati, but the judgment of the multitude 
concerning the good, is to be praised, rather than 
[ihat we can say] these are happy on this account, 
viz. on account of being praised. 



§40. 

The glory of the illustrious dead can never be taken away. Le4 
us not suppose, then, that to die is to lose this good. 

(134) P. 68. I. 4. Ante enim etc, for sooner 
will the sea overflow Salamis itself etc. — Salaminii 
tropaei refers to the trophy of the great naval vic- 
tory at Salamis, gained by the Greek fleet over that 
of Xerxes; in which the Persian fleet was nearly 
ruined, and the whole plans of Xerxes frustrated. 
— Boeotia Leuctra was famous for the victory 
there achieved by Epaminondas, the celebrated 
Theban general, over the army of Cleombrotus 
king of Sparta, B. C. 371 ; in which 4000 Spartans, 



NOTES ON § 40. 159 

with their king, wore kitted. This hattle took from 
the Spartans the power of ruling over Greece. 

(136) P. 68. /. 17. vScundis.. ; mori, Ml pros- 
perity, also, let him be ivilling to die. — Non enim . . . 
-si<>, /or the (((cumulation of good things cannot 
be so agreeable, as the giving of them up will be 
troublesome. — Laeonis (Gen.), of a Lacedemonian. — 
Olvmpioniees nobilis, a noble victor in the Olym- 
pian games. — Accessit ad senem, i. e. ad Diago- 
ram. — Non . . . es, for you cannot ascend to heaven, 
i. e. without dying ; and nothing else is now want- 
ing that you should go there. So, in substance, 
Ernesti. But I do not see the point of the dis- 
course in this w r ay. I understand it thus : Die, 
for you can expect nothing beyond this. Heaven, 
however, will be no ascent for you ; i. e. you are 
already higher than it can make you. Quod in 
. . . maxime, because that in dist?°ess and trials, this 
is the greatest of consolations. 



§41. 

The immortal gods have added their testimony, that death is a 
good, and no evil. So the cases of Cleobis and Biton, of Trophoni- 
us an I Agamedes, of Midas and Silenus and Terinaeus, shew. 
Consider, too, the examples of Codrus, Menocaeus, etc.; to all of 
whom death appeared glorious. 

(13(3) P. 69. I. 23. Nee vero . . . ipsi, nor are 
they [the teachers] wont to feign these things, but 
etc. — Primuni etc. , in the first place , Cleobis and 
Biton, so?is of the Grecian priestess are mentioned. — 
Satis. . .jumenta, a long way from the town to Die 
temple, and the beasts [which drew her] stopped. — 
Precata . . . dicitur, is said to have asked of the god~ 
dess. — Pietate, their filial respect. — Judicavisse etc., 



160 NOTES ON § 41. 

they say that the god did so decide ; and even that 
god, to whom the other gods concede that he can di- 
vine beyond the rest. 

(138) P. 70. I. 16. Silenus, according to fable, 
was the nurse and preceptor of Bacchus. Midas 
was a king of Phrygia, who shewed him great 
hospitality. — Missione, dismission, liberation. — Nam 
nos etc. , for it becomes us assembling together, to 
mourn over the house, etc. 

(132) P. 70. I. 28. Elisium, of Elis— Psycho- 
mantium, the place of necromancy, i. e. for consult- 
ing the Manes of the dead. — Euthynous, the name 
of the son who was mourned for. — Rebus . . . ju- 
dicatam, decided by things from the immortal gods. 

(139) P. 71. 1. 10. Repetunt ab Erechtheo, they 
derive an example from Erechtheus. This person 
was, according to tradition, the sixth king of 
Athens, and died about 1347 B. C. He was the 
father of Cecrops 2nd ; and in a war against Eleu- 
sis, he sacrificed his daughter Othyania (or Chtho- 
nia), to obtain a victory which was promised by an 
oracle, on such a condition. Cicero, in using the 
plural (filiae) here, seems to imply that more than 
one of his children were devoted to death ; and 
this, by a voluntary act on their part, cupide mo?*- 
tem expetiverunt. 

(140) P. 71. I. 12. Coclrum, i. e. [they appeal to] 
Codrus etc. Codrus was the 17th king of Athens, 
and died about 1070 B. C. When the Heraclidae 
attacked Athens, and an oracle declared that the 
party should be victorious whose king was killed 
in battle, they gave strict orders to their troops to 
spare the life of Codrus. But he put on the dis- 
guise of a common soldier, and then, attacking the 



NOTES ON §41. 1G1 

tommy, he was slain, and Athens became victori- 
ous. 

(141) P. 71. /. 16. Menoeceua, a son of Creon 
king of Thebes, who, when the prophet Tiresias 
ordered the Thelmns to sacrifice one of those who 
Sprang from the dragon's teeth, (see the article 
Cadmus in Lempriere), in order that they might 
obtain the victory over the Argive forces, came 
forward, and voluntarily devoted himself to death; 
and thus the victory was ensured. 

(142) P. 71. /. 18. The story of Iphigenia, the 
daughter of Agamemnon is well known. The 
Greek fleet, on their way to Troy, were detained 
by contrary winds at Aid is, in the straits of Euri- 
pus ; and on consulting the oracles, they were told 
that the sacrifice of Iphigenia was necessary, in or- 
der that they might have a favourable voyage. 
This accordingly took place, as some say ; and so 
Cicero here seems to consider it. But see Iphi- 
geuia in Lempriere. 

(143) P. 71. I. 20. Harmodius . . . et Aristogiton, 
two intimate friends, at Athens, who delivered their 
countrymen from the tyranny of the Pisistratidae, 
B. C. 510. They received the honours of immor- 
tality from the Athenians, and had statues erected 
to their memory. — Leonidas, see Note 128. — Ep- 
amiuondas of Thebes is too well known to need 
description. 

(144) P. 71. Z. 22. Nostros non norunt, our 
countrymen they are not acquainted with; i. e. they, 
the Greek philosophers, who appeal to such exam- 
ples as I have mentioned, are not acquainted with 
our countrymen. 



162 NOTES ON §42. 

§42. 

These things being true, we ought to use every effort to persuade 
men the rather to wish for death ; certainly not to fear it. Let 
us regard the day of our departure as a joyful day; for we are 
not made by chance, but the gods who consult the welfare of the 
human race, have made us; and this, not that we may endure la- 
bours and sufferings, and then come to a state of eternal wretched- 
ness. Let us believe that there is a refuge prepared for us, where 
we may be eternally happy. 

(145) P. 71. I. 25. Quae cum ita sint, magna 
tamen etc., which things although they are thus, yet 
much eloquence must be employed, etc. — Ita conni- 
ventem, thus closing our eyes. — Mel i or . . . oratio, 
the saying of Ennius is better than that of Solon. — 
Noster, i. e. Ennius, who was a Roman poet. — 
Sapiens ille, i. e. Solon. — Velis passis, with sails 
wide spread; passis from pando. 

Habes epilogum, you have the epilogue, i. e. the 
concluding part of my discourse. — Optime, in- 
quam ; for the best reason, I should say. — Quot 
dies, so long as. — Tusculanum means, a country 
house of Cicero, in the vicinity of Tusculum. 
This latter place was about 12 miles from Rome ; 
and is reported to have been founded by Telego- 
nus, a son of Ulysses and Circe. It is now called 
Frescati ; and is famous for the magnificent vil- 
las in its neighborhood, 






APPENDIX. 

§ 1. Immateriality of the soul. 

In order rightly to judge of the weight which 
should be allowed to the arguments of Cicero in 
favour of the immortality of the soul, it will be in 
a measure necessary, in the first place, to consider 
the real state of this subject, as it is now presented 
before the public in Christian lands. If by due 
consideration we can find ground which is solid 
and tenable, we may then proceed to the examina- 
tion of Cicero's arguments, applying to them the 
tests which have previously been established. In 
this way, and in this only, can we learn to put a just 
estimate upon the nature and importance of the 
arguments which the Roman philosopher employ- 
ed, or upon those which are usually employed at 
the present time, in order to establish the immor- 
tality of the soul. 

Every human being, in the appropriate use of 
his faculties, is conscious of what he calls internal 
and mental operations. He forms ideas or notions 
of things, he thinks, he reasons, he remembers, he 
compares, he judges, he desires, he fears, etc. ; 
and of all these and the like actions and emotions, 
he is perfectly conscious. He can no more doubt 
the reality of these mental actions and emotions, 
than he can doubt whether he exists. Indeed, 
they are themselves the certain, and (to him) in- 



164 



IMMATERIALITY 



dubitable evidences, that he does exist. A con- 
sciousness of them, is consciousness both of exist- 
ence and of mental action. 

Most men are agreed in calling these phenome- 
na mental action or mental development ; i. e. they 
trace every thing of this nature to a cause or be- 
ing, which they name mind. If the doing of this 
be not a simple dictate of the first, spontaneous, 
and elementary principles of our nature, (and I am 
inclined to believe it is), still it is something which 
results almost of course from even a very limited 
acquaintance with external things, i. e. with the 
material world. 

We are in part composed of an element which 
we call matter. We are every where surrounded by 
this same element. To this, in consequence of the 
senses which are given us, and as a result of ex- 
amination, we assign the qualities of solidity, exten- 
sion, ponderosity, disvisibility, colour, figure, etc. 
These qualities enter essentially into our idea of 
matter ; and without them matter, in the proper 
sense of this word, cannot be supposed to exist. 

The qualities which we assign to matter, are of 
such a kind, that we are unable to perceive any 
necessary connection between them, and thinking, 
willing, reasoning, judging, etc. A great portion 
of the matter which we daily see, is plainly desti- 
tute even of sensation ; and a fortiori it must be 
destitute of thought and reason and spontaneity. 

But the matter of which our bodies are compos- 
ed, is matter placed in a peculiar state; it is high- 
ly and most skilfully organized. If matter, i. e. 
brute and common matter, such as we see in most 
of the terrestrial objects around us, cannot think 



OF THE SOIL. 



165 



and reason and will ; yet may not matter, organ- 
ized with more than human skill, be susceptible of 
thinking and reasoning and willing? 

A deeply interesting question ; and one that 
leads ro the very gist of our subject. In answer 
to it, I would remark, (1) That all organized bod- 
ies are not capable of thought and volition and 
spontaneous motion ; at least, we have not the 
slightest evidence that such is the case ; since 
many of them do not exhibit any of the phenomena 
which accompany developments of this nature. 
For example ; trees and vegetables, i.e. every ob- 
ject which exhibits merely what we call vegeta- 
ble life, afford not the slightest evidence of any 
thing like thought, volition, or reason. 

(2) When we ascend one gradation higher, and 
come to a class of beings that exhibit animal but 
not rational life, it is natural to inquire, whether 
this be merely the result of the structure or pe- 
culiar organization of matter. And here we are 
at a loss. Our sources of evidence are inadequate. 
What secret properties may be in matter, which 
do not develope themselves unless in consequence 
of a peculiar organization, but which may and will 
develope themselves when such an organization 
takes place, is more than we can possibly tell. It 
lies beyond the boundaries of our present knowl- 
edge. We must either have a consciousness of the 
living power of the brute animal, or must witness 
some external phenomena that would develope this 
power, in order to settle the question respecting it 
on the real ground of knowledge. As matters 
now are, and since we can have no access to either 
of those sources of knowledge, all we can do is, to 
8* 



1 66 IMMATERIALITY 

judge of probabilities on the ground of analogy. 
And here, too, we are encompassed with no small 
difficulty. Has a brute most analogy with vegeta- 
ble organized matter, or with human beings ? If 
a brute has thoughts, desires, fears, pleasures, 
pains, and even consciousness ; if, in a low degree, 
it may be said to reason, i. e. to deduce certain 
conclusions from certain premises, and so is wide- 
ly distinguished from the vegetable world ; still it 
is not capable of indefinite improvement in knowl- 
edge and reasoning ; it has no moral sense ; it is 
limited, and forever and irresistibly limited, to a very 
narrow circle, in all its susceptibilities, emotions, 
and powers of improvement ; while man, so far as 
can be known from his present nature, is suscepti- 
ble, in almost every respect, of improvement that 
is unlimited and endless. A difference heaven- 
wide, like this, between man and brute, seems to 
bring the latter nearer to the vegetable than to the 
rational creation. 

But we dismiss this subject, because, as I have 
already said, it is beyond the boundary of human 
knowledge. Let us come, (3) To man. Here we 
have a source of knowledge, which is out of our 
power when we strive to become acquainted with 
the nature and properties of the brutes. We are 
not only conscious that we think and will and rea- 
son and remember, but we do spontaneously feel, 
while we are conscious of these and the like 
things, that they are not properties or results of 
matter. We assign to them as a cause, that living 
intelligent, rational principle or essence, which we 
call mind or soul. And this is so universally and 
spontaneously done, that I hesitate not to number 



OF THE SOUL. 1G7 

it, as Dr. Abererombie in his recent and admirable 

work on the intellectual Powers has done, among 

the tirst or elementary and intuitive principle! of 

knowledge; and consequently I must regard the 
fact in question, as one incapable of demonstration 
by a pr o oeftS of reasoning, No elementary truth is 
capable of demonstration. It has higher evidence 
in its favour. It is the spontaneous dictate of the 
very nature of our minds ; and unless they are so 
formed as to mislead and deceive us, this dictate 
must be truth. 

J cannot help feeling a conviction, that the ac- 
tions of our minds can never be traced to the mere 
organization of matter ; and this conviction is of 
the like tenor as the conviction, that the apparent ex- 
ternal objects of nature around us have a real ex- 
istence. We cannot prove this last fact. No less 
a philosopher than Berkeley, undertook to prove 
the contrary. But after all, it is a universal law of 
our nature, which determines that the real existence 
of external objects is matter of fact. Every body 
believes it ; always has believed it ; and always 
will. And so, a conviction that mind is not mat- 
ter, and vice versa, seems to be at least as widely 
extended among men, as thought and reason and 
moral consciousness are. 

So much for the truth itself of the immateriality 
of the soul. It is not a subject of direct demon- 
stration, because it is a truth that lies out of the 
boundaries of demonstration, and is of a higher 
and more satisfactory nature. 

The reader will observe here, that I speak now 
merely of the immateriality of the soul, and not of 
its immortality. These two things, sometimes 



1 68 IMMATERIALITY 

confounded, (as indeed they are by both Cicero 
and Plato), may be perfectly distinct, and immeas- 
ureably diverse. We should therefore consider 
them separately from each other. 

(4) But although I have supposed the immate- 
riality of the soul to be a first principle of our 
knowledge, and therefore to rank higher than 
demonstrative truth ; yet J am by no means satis- 
fied, that on the score of reasoning we may not be 
compelled, as it were, to concede the immateriality 
of the soul. If I ask the question : Whether the 
phenomena of mind proceed from the same cause as 
the phenomena of matter ? I am constrained, in 
order to make out an answer, to take into consid- 
eration a number of particulars, which seem to 
render the affirmative of this question quite im- 
probable. 

(a) The developments of matter and mind are 
exceedingly different. Thinking, willing, reason- 
ing, etc. , it must be admitted, are very diverse 
from solidity, extension, gravity, divisibility, etc. 
These last properties are the developments of mat- 
ter. They are essential to our notion of it. 
These are effects of some cause, or at least quali- 
ties of some substance, which, appropriately to its 
own nature, makes such developments. 

(b) All our knowledge of matter comes through 
the medium of the senses ; all our knowledge of 
mind comes only by consciousness. The sources of 
knowledge, then, are exceedingly diverse, in the 
respective cases under consideration. 

It is very natural now to ask : Must not the 
sources of mental and material phenomena be dif- 
ferent, when the phenomena themselves are so 



OF THE SOUL. 1G9 

widely different, and when our means of becom- 
ing acquainted with them are so very diverse? I 
Bee not li«>\v we can well avoid the conclusion, 
that the causes of each set of phenomena, must be 
different in themselves. 

(c) Divisibility is an invariable quality of matter, 
in all irs modifications of which we have, or can 
at present have, any conception. But how am 1 to 
divide thought, will, consciousness? If you say, 
that these are only phenomena of the mind, and 
not the mind itself; and that some of the phenom- 
ena of matter are equally indivisible, e. g. solidity ; 
my reply is, that of all the acts of the mind divisi- 
bility is an impossible predicate. You may increase 
or diminish the intensify of thought or affection. 
Other changes the nature of these things does not 
admit. But we can divide a solid piece of matter ; 
we can separate its form, i. e. divide it into several 
forms of the like kind, or of different kinds, etc. 
And although quality, in the abstract, cannot be 
divided, the matter which possesses it may be 
modified, so that this quality, as belonging to it, 
may receive changes of a nature very different 
from that of greater or less intensity. The phe- 
omena of matter in this respect, therefore, are 
very different from those of mind ; and conse^ 
quently, as we may infer with probability, they 
proceed from a different cause. 

(d) All our sensations are dependent on extern 
nal causes for their origin or continuance. For 
example ; we could not see without light, let our 
physical organs of vision, or our minds, be in 
ever so perfect a state. IVe could not hear with- 
out a vibration of the atmosphere, or of some other 



170 IMMATERIALITY 

body which is capable of percussion. And when 
we had once seen and heard, we should cease to 
do so, provided these external causes were never 
more to influence us. 

On the other hand ; what the mind has once 
received, it can continue, by the aid of memory, 
ever to use and appropriate. It recals ; reflects ; 
makes new combinations of its own thoughts; and 
produces new results. It can, when once furnish- 
ed with a store of ideas, so combine and arrange 
them, as to invent or imagine new ideas, such as 
correspond to no actual existences. In this state, 
if all the external universe were shut out from it, 
or absolutely annihilated, it could, for aught we 
can see, go on with these mental processes unem- 
barrassed, or at least without being obliged to cease 
from them. 

Can that be material, then, which is so indepen- 
dent of matter, in a multitude of its operations ? 

(e) On the supposition that the soul is material, 
how can we account for consciousness of identity, 
or memory of the past ? Nothing is more certain, 
than that every part of our material bodies, all 
their organic structures, are changing, and chang- 
ing every hour and moment, from the cradle to the 
grave. All the organic matter in my bodily frame 
has been completely shifted, a great many times, 
since my physical being commenced. One and 
all of the physiologists agree in the absolute cer- 
tainty of this. How then can identity have been 
transmitted ? If I am matter merely, or skilfully 
organized matter merely, and this is all that I am ; 
then it is certain that there never has been any 
two moments in my whole life, in which personal 



OF THE SOUL. 171 

identity could with truth be asserted; for there 
never has been any two moments, in which entire 
material identity existed. 

How, moreover, can a consciousness of such an 
identity he transmitted, provided we are wholly 
material ? In the first place, it would be a con- 
sciousness of what is not true ; and how can this 
be allowed ? And secondly. I see not how to ac- 
count for it, that with the full knowledge, that no 
material particle now in me is what once belonged 
to me, I yet can, in no way possible, resist the con- 
viction, that I am the very same being that I was 
forty years ago. Shall we resort to the old atomic 
philosophy and say, that the movements of our 
atomic particles are all intelligent ; and that while 
some of the worn out particles of our bodies are 
moving off by means of the blood, and others com- 
ing in by the same medium, the former communi- 
cate to the new comers a consciousness that they 
are the same as the old residents ? This would be 
to make the atoms of Democritus" a pseudologous 
race ; of which character that philosopher never 
suspected them to be. 

We come by a kind of necessity to the conclu- 
sion, then, that a nature different from a material one 
exists within us ; one wiiich remains unchanged as 
to its essential or constitutional being, through all 
the different stages of our existence, and svhich, by 
the aid of consciousness and memory, spontane- 
ously decides upon its own identity. The fact it- 
self, that it does so decide, is known to every human 
being, and needs no proof; and this decision is 
plainly to be classed among the elementary or 
intuitive principles of the knowledge of our ow r n 
nature. 



1 72 IMMATERIALITY 

For these reasons, now, we may justly regard it 
as highly probable, that our minds cannot be the 
result of any organized combination of matter. 
But after all, I apprehend that the full persuasion 
of this truth, as I before said, is one of the intuitive 
principles to which our very nature leads us. How- 
ever, we may justly, perhaps, regard the thing itself 
as the more certain, if other considerations, as 
above stated, all combine to render it probable. 

Thus far, then, we seem to have found our way 
clear ; the soul is not material. But this proposi- 
tion, it will be remembered, is merely negative. 
We have not said what the soul is ; but what it is 
not What I have said goes to shew, that thinking, 
willing, reasoning, and other mental phenomena, 
proceed from a cause different from matter, how- 
ever ingeniously or skilfully this may be organized. 
Even this was felt by some ancient philosophers, 
who lived in the depth of heathen night. Aris- 
toxenus represented the soul as a species of har- 
mony ; Xenocrates and Pythagoras ascribed a kind 
of numerosity (numerus) or melody to it; while 
Plato and Cicero are most clear and strenuous, on 
the point of its absolute immateriality. 

I may now venture to add, (5) That the certainty 
of the existence of the mind, is as great as we 
have, or can have, of any fact or truth whatever. 
So say Stewart and Abercrombie ; men who are ex- 
ceedingly well qualified to judge of the force of ar- 
gument. The former adds, that "even the system of 
Berkeley, concerning the non-existence of matter, 
is far more conceivable, than that nothing but mat- 
ter exists in the universe." Why must not this be 
true ? The man who thinks, and reasons, and 



OF THE SOUL. 1 73 

wills, does by these very acts create the most per- 
fect and irresistible conviction of which ho is sus- 
ceptible, that his mind twists and acts. He lias a 
perfect conviction, that the matter of which his 
body is composed, and which is every moment 
changing, cannot love and hate, suffer and enjoy, 
hope and fear, reason and investigate, explore the 
heavens and measure the earth, as he does. He 
knows that when he loses an arm, or a leg, or 
both, and other parts also of his body, his men- 
tal powers may remain, and usually do remain, 
in undiminished vigour. How can he feel, then, 
that matter is his only self? He cannot. In the 
madness of sensual intoxication, he may affirm 
this. From the love of paradox, he may dispute in 
favour of it ; but to feel an abiding conviction that 
his. mind and body are one and the same substance, 
is what cannot well be imagined to be within the 
power of any rational being, who is in any tolerable 
degree enlightened. 

§ 2. Immortality or endless duration of the mind or 
souL 
This is a question of higher moment and deeper 
interest to us, than any other, I had well nigh 
said, than all others, which can be raised. Of 
what great consequence can it be, that we can 
think and reason and will, that we can survey and 
measure the heavens and the earth, and that all 
our mental powers are capable of indefinite im- 
provement, if, after a few days or years, the exis- 
tence of all these splendid attributes is to come to 
a final end ? To inanimate matter, and to the 
vegetable and brute creation, has a lot fallen, which 



174 IMMORTALITY 

is enviable compared with our own, in case that 
death is the end of our being. All the inferior cre- 
ation suffer comparatively little, and hope for or 
expect nothing. We suffer much, and hope for 
every thing ; and if we must endure the one, and 
the light of the other be forever quenched, then 
is the lot of the inferior creation greatly prefera- 
ble to ours. 

Even the question, whether there is a God, al- 
though of deeper interest to the universe in gener- 
al, is one of less interest to us individually, than 
the question whether we are to live forever. For 
if there is a God, and yet death is the end of our 
being, of what consequence will it be to us, at 
last, who or what exists? It follows, therefore, 
that we have a deeper interest in the question con- 
cerning the perpetuity of our own being, than in 
any other. 

But how shall this be solved ? Can the proof, 
or the entire conviction, that the soul is immateri- 
al, i. e. that it is not matter, satisfy us that it is also 
immortal ? I am unable to see how this conse- 
quence necessarily follows. I am speaking now 
of investigation independently of the Scriptures. 
On this ground, I cannot see what hinders, that 
the origin of the being or action of our mental 
powers, may not be an invariable concomitant of the 
organization of our bodies ; for thus it appears to 
be : and so, it is like a multitude of other concomi- 
tant existences and powers in the kingdom of na- 
ture. And if our mental structure (sit venia verbo) 
first arose cotemporaneously with our bodily one, 
i.. e. when the latter was so joined together as to 



OF THE SOUL. 175 

make a human frame, why may it not ceaso to ho 
an organized mental structure, when the body dies? 
I know of no process of reasoning, which can 
disprove this. The argument of Plato and Cicero, 
that because the mind is immaterial, it is there* 
lore immutable and immortal, I acknowledge is 
striking and specious ; and it has been adopted by 
a multitude of reasoners on the subject of the soul's 
immortality. But Plato and Cicero, who were 
both very sensible to the force of argument, having 
once reasoned in such a way on this point, felt 
themselves obliged to be consistent, and to go the 
whole length to which the argument would natur- 
ally carry them. If the soul is immutable and 
eternal in itself, said they, it must have existed 
from eternity a parte ante, as truly as it will exist 
in eternity a parte post Consequently (for so they 
concluded) all human souls must be absolutely exist- 
ent, i. e. they have always existed. Of course, as 
we must now see, the number of them, according to 
this, is incapable of increase or diminution. Trans- 
migration naturally comes along in the train of such 
ratiocination, in order to answer the question, 
where has the soul hitherto been? And this, Pla- 
to, with his teachers the Pythagoreans, fully em- 
braced ; Cicero, hesitatingly aud with apparent re> 
luctance, for he generally keeps it out of sight, 

I need not stop here to refute the doctrine of trans- 
migration, or the anterior existence of human souls ; 
although the latter is, at the present time, strenuous- 
ly affirmed by Beneke of Heidelburg, a living and 
recent commentator on the Epistle to the Romans. 
But allowing that souls came into being as souls, 
cotemporaneously with the organization of matter 



176 IMMORTALITY 

into a human body ; what is there to prove that, as 
souls, i.e. as possessed of their present powers and 
attributes, they may not perish, or undergo an en- 
tire change at death, like to that which we see in 
the body ? I know of no direct proof of this, in- 
dependently of revelation, and in the way of ratio- 
cination. I do not see how we are to get at mate- 
rials, out of which we may construct an argument 
No one comes back from the invisible world to tell 
us what the soul is there ; so that we cannot de- 
rive any knowledge of this kind from direct testi- 
mony. And as to knowledge from experience ; we 
ourselves have never been in a state of death ; we 
have had no experience. Whence, then, is our 
proof to come ? 

A truly difficult question, independently of Scrip- 
ture and our moral sense. Yet some things may 
perhaps be said on this subject, which will serve 
to render it probable, that the substance which we 
call mind, does not perish by the death of the body. 

But we can reason on this point, only from anal- 
ogy ; because, as I have already hinted, the state 
of the soul after death is neither a matter of con- 
sciousness, nor of experiment, nor of observation, 
nor of testimony. Of course, I lay the Scriptures 
out of the question, for the present. How then 
stands the matter of analogy, according to the light 
of nature ? 

The body, when death occurs, loses its organized 
state ; and consequently the physical powers that 
were connected with, and dependent on, this state, 
are also destroyed. But in regard to the existence 
of the matter itself which composes the body, con- 
sidered simply as matter, this surely does not cease 



OF THE SOUL. 177 

to exist after death. Every physiologist and chem- 
ist well knows, indeed, that matter may be end- 
lessly modified and diversified in its combinations; 
but he knows equally well, that there is not one 
particle more or less of matter now, than there was 
on the day that the creation was finished. Matter 
is indestructible by any power, save that which 
called it into being. 

By analogical reasoning, then, we must of course 
be led to say, that the substance or essence of tho 
mind or soul, whatever this may be, can never be 
at all affected in the way of annihilation, by the 
i Union of the body. We may easily believe, 
that the actions and affections, i. e. the phenomena 
of the soul as connected with the body, may be 
modified, in some degree, by the dissolution of the 
material organs of sense, through the medium of 
which the soul obtained all its sensitive ideas. But 
such a modification merely, not annihilation, is all 
which can in any degree be rendered probable, in 
the way of argument from analogy. In no other 
way can any argument be made to bear upon the 
subject. 

But does the substance mind, retain, after the 
death of the body, those powers which it exercised 
independently of the senses ? As the disorganization 
of the body has destroyed its active physical pow- 
ers ; and as the soul came into being cotemporane- 
ously with the organized body, and in connection 
with it began the development of its powers — may 
not this development cease, when the organized 
body is destroyed ? Nodus vindice dignus — who 
can solve it ? 

When we are told with the strongest confidence 



178 IMMORTALITY 

by Plato and Cicero, and have been told by multi- 
tudes of others, that spontaneity of action in the 
soul necessarily proves the eternity of it, can we 
consistently receive this as sound and legitimate 
argument ? For myself, I must say that I cannot 
perceive why, so far as arguments of this nature 
can go, we may not as well render it probable, that 
souls may cease to act, or (so to express myself) be 
disorganized, as that they begin to act. The latter 
we fully believe, because we cannot adopt the 
theory of a pre-existent state, and a metempsycho- . 
sis. And the subject of possibility in the nature of 
things, as known to us without the light of revela- 
tion, being the only one which we now have in 
view ; who is able to produce any solid argument 
ill this way to shew, why the disorganization of 
the mind or soul may not take place simultaneously 
with physical dissolution ; or at least, why it may 
not speedily and certainly follow it ? How can 
spontaneity of action in the soul, (which Plato calls 
xlvrjvig, and Cicero motus), be a certain evidence of 
eternal existence ? Can it be shewn that God, or 
(if you will) Nature, can not form a human being 
with powers of spontaneous action ? When it can, 
then of course it must be proved, that the souls of 
men have never been formed at any period, but 
have existed from all eternity ; and consequently 
that neither God nor Nature is their Maker. This 
Plato does maintain, when he is urging the argu- 
ment for immortality; although he contradicts it 
elsewhere. And the like is implied in what Cicero 
says, although he seems fearful of the consequences 
that will result from pressing this argument. 

1 see no way then in which, by the simple light 



OF THE SOUL. ( 179 

itarc and ratiocination, ire ran prove the im- 
partiality of the soul. The two great sources of 
knowledge respecting a future state, eoaaeiouei 

Kperience, and testimony (independently of 
Revelation), are wholly wanting, or are at least 
inaccessible. Consequently the materiel for argu- 
ment, (if I may he allowed the expression), cannot 
be supplied; and therefore au argument cannot be 
constructed. 

The utmost, indeed, which can be done in this 
way, is to shew that the dissolution of the body 
cannot be supposed to annihilate the substance of 
the mind : since it does not at all annihilate the 
substance of even the body itself. But still we are 
obliged to admit, that the dissolution of the body 
must modify the actions and affections of the soul, 
in some degree ; because, when all our bodily or- 
gans are dissolved, one great inlet of ideas to the 
soul is dissolved. That class of mental phenom- 
ena which are strictly denominated sensations, must 
of course cease. 

But the purely mental phenomena — what of 
these ? They may cease, or may not ; who can 
assure us the one or the other ? It is indeed as 
clear as noon-day, that the most inveterate skeptic 
never can bring a single argument to prove that 
* phenomena do cease, when the body is dis- 
solved. This is utterly beyond his power. If 
there is any probability on this subject, it is in fa- 
vour of the other side of the question ; inasmuch 
as the purely mental phenomena seem to be very 
little connected with the body, and in a manner to 
be independent of it ; as we have seen under § 1 
above. 



180 IMMORTALITY 

Here then, as it seems to me, must unassisted 
reason, or rather, ratiocination, leave the subject. 
Demonstrative or argumentative power is not suf- 
ficient, of itself, to remove the obstacles which im- 
pede our vision into futurity; and the simple 
ground of this is, that demonstrative arguments 
cannot be constructed, for want of materials. 

How then did Socrates, Plato, Cicero, and many 
others of the most eminent heathen philosophers, 
persuade themselves that the soul is immortal ? 
I answer, that it was not, I apprehend, merely by 
the force of the arguments which they employed ; 
for on a critical examination of them, it will be 
found that few of these will abide the test ; but it 
was because a moral feeling or nature within them 
gave to their apparent arguments most, if not all, 
of their real weight. To this principle I must now 
advert, in order to complete what I have to say on 
the doctrine of the soul's immortality. 

My own apprehension relative to this great sub- 
ject, is, that the evidence which satisfies us of a 
future state, is derived from the moral constitution 
of our nature. It is like the feeling, that there is 
a right and a wrong in morals. This last sensa- 
tion brings along with it an apprehension of ac- 
countability ; and this connects itself with a fu- 
ture state. If you say, that multitudes of the hea- 
then have no clear views of this point ; this will 
prove nothing. The tendency of all the systems 
of heathen religion notoriously is, to support the 
notion of an existence in a future state. A future 
state, a reward for those who please the gods, 
and punishment for those who do not, seem to 
be interwoven, in some form or other, with the 



Of THE SOUL. 181 

nature and essence of all religion. What is 
this but a development of thai very principle in 
our naiuiv, to which I have just been adverting? 

If I should affirm, that men are rational beings; 
and an opponent should reply, that multitudes act in 
a manner which gives Kittle or no evidence of their 
possessing reason ; should 1 be satisfied, even if I 
admitted this, that men are not rational beings? 
No; 1 might concede the full truth of his allega- 
tion, and reply merely, that men, being free agents, 
could and did abuse their reason, and pervert and 
extinguish it. 

And so in the case before us. Be it that multi- 
tudes of the heathen have little or no belief in a 
future state, or little or no knowledge of it; then 
we DMg sny of them, that they have perverted their 
moral nature ; they have extinguished the light 
which Heaven had kindled in their breasts ; just 
as the apostle charges them with having done, in 
respect to a knowledge of the eternal pow r er and 
godhead of the Creator. But perverted or ex- 
tinguished moral feelings can never prove that 
such feelings have no existence, i. e. no well 
grounded basis, in our moral nature. 

I caunot hope to do better justice to this part 
of my subject, than Dr. Abercrombie has already 
done, in his excellent book to which I have mor» 
than once referred. I must beg the liberty, there- 
fore, of making a quotation from him. This I 
shall do, merely remarking, that I know not how 
my own sentiments could be more exactly express- 
ed, than in his words. 

"Our speculations respecting the immateriality 
of the rational human soul have no influence on 
9 



182 IMMORTALITY 

our belief of its immortality. This momentous 
truth rests on a species of evidence altogether dif- 
ferent, which addresses itself to the moral consti- 
tution of man. It is found in those principles of 
his nature by which he feels upon his spirit the 
awe of a God, and looks forward to the future with 
anxiety or with hope ; by which he knows how to 
distinguish truth from falsehood and evil from 
good, and has forced upon him the conviction that 
he is a moral and responsible being. This is the 
power of conscience, that monitor within, which 
raises its voice in the breast of every man, a wit- 
ness for -his Creator. He who resigns himself to 
its guidance, and he who repels its warnings, are 
both compelled to acknowledge its power ; and, 
whether the good man rejoices in the prospect of 
immortality, or the victim of remorse withers be- 
neath an influence unseen by human eye, and 
shrinks from the anticipation of a reckoning to 
come, each has forced upon him a conviction, such 
as argument -never gave, that the being which is es- 
sentially himself is distinct from any function of 
the body, and v/ill survive in undiminished vigour 
when the body shall have fallen into decay. 

" When, indeed, we take into the inquiry the high 
principles of moral obligation, and the moral gov- 
ernment of the Deity, this important truth is en- 
tirely independent of all our feeble speculations on 
the essence of mind. For though we were to sup- 
pose, with the materialist, that the rational soul of 
man is a mere chemical combination, which, by the 
dissolution of its elements, is dissipated to the four 
winds of heaven, where is the improbability that 
the Power which framed the wondrous compound 



OF THE SOUL. 163 

may collect these elements again, and combine 
them anew, for the greet purposes of his moral 
administration. In our speculations on such a 
momentous subject, we arc too apt to be influenced 
by our eoneeptions of the powers and properties of 
physical things; but there is a point where this 
principle must be abandoned, and where the sound- 
est philosophy requires that we take along with us 
a full recognizance of the power of God. 

"There is thus, in the consciousness of every 
man, a deep impression of continued existence. 
The casuist may reason against it, till he bewilder 
himself in his own sophistries ; but a voice within 
- the lie to his vain speculations, and pleads 
with authority for a life which is to come. The 
sincere and humble inquirer cherishes the impres- 
sion, while he seeks for further light on a subject 
so momentous ; and he thus receives, with absolute 
conviction, the truth which beams upon him from 
the revelation of God, — that the mysterious part of 
his being, which thinks, and wills, and reasons, 
shall indeed survive the wreck of its mortal tene- 
ment, and is destined for immortality." 

1 have only to add, that a conviction of such a 
nature appears to be deeper, more uniform, more 
operative, than any which could possibly be pro- 
duced on untutored men by nicely refined argu- 
ments, or indeed by any arguments. God, by giv- 
ing us a constitutional feeling that there is a judg- 
ment to come, has implanted in our very souls a 
fundamental knowledge of the first great law of 
moral restraint, viz. that we are accountable for all 
our actions ; and what of the account is not adjusted 
here, we may naturally apprehend, will be adjusted 



184 IMMORTALITY 

in a future state. The skeptic and the scoffer may 
as well destroy the very being of the soul, as de- 
stroy this apprehension. It will return, after it 
has been driven off. It will come back with aw- 
ful power, when they are upon a dying bed. It 
will cling to them forever and ever, in that world 
the existence of which they have denied, but 
which ere long will open upon them with all its 
dread realities. 

It will be acknowledged by all, that there are 
first truths of a purely intellectual nature ; and 
there are first truths of a moral nature. On these 
all processes of ratiocination, both intellectual and 
moral, are built. My view of the doctrine of the 
soul's immortality, as established by the light of 
nature, is, that it is one of those first truths, which 
are impressed on our moral constitution by its 
Maker. It was the feeling that springs from this, 
which gave weight and power to the arguments 
employed by Plato and Cicero, in order to estab- 
lish the doctrine of a future state. More time and 
more improvement in moral and religious philoso- 
phy were needed, before this could be fully de- 
veloped ; and so these philosophers have given us 
but an imperfect development of it. Still, we shall 
see in the sequel, that Cicero did not overlook so 
important a consideration ; although his develop- 
ment of it is in a way somewhat indirect. 

It is important to keep these remarks in view, 
when we come to examine the arguments which 
Cicero has adduced in favour of the soul's immor- 
tality. We shall be able, then, to account for it, 
that some of them appear to have had more weight 
in his mind, than we can well allow them to have, 
considered simply as arguments. 



OF THE SOUL. 185 

We come now, In the coiicIikI'ii^ part of this 
dissertation, to advert to 'he Scriptures, as having 
tauirht im fully and explicitly the doctrine of a fu- 
ture state. This Lies 80 upon the i'aec of the whole 
New Tesfrmiant, that to prove it by quotations, 
would he quite superfluous. But plain and expli- 
eit and often repeated as the declarations of the 
Micred writers are, in regard to this subject, it is 
remarkable that they have no where once attempt- 
ed to establish the doctrine of the soul's immortal- 
ity by ratiocination or argument. They seem 
every where to take it for granted ; in other words, 
they do plainly regard it as one of the indisputable 
truths, which lie in the elements of our moral na- 
ture. If any one doubts or denies this statement, 
let him produce a single passage from sacred writ, 
which contains a demonstrative argument in favour 
of the soul's immortality. 

Paul asserts that the gospel has brought life and 
immortality, i. e. immortal life, to light. Is not this 
true ? Will it be said, that I have already admitted 
this truth to be one of the dictates of our moral 
"nature ? I have so. But this does not hinder a 
full recognition of the fact (which is equally plain), 
that men, by their evil passions and pursuits, have 
perverted and darkened this truth ; just as they 
have that, which respects the eternal power and 
godhead of the Creator.* It was reserved for the 
gospel to scatter the darkness which evil passions 
and sensuality had spread over the moral world. 
This it has fully done. The testimony that the 
l'< «pel is true, cannot be resisted by a candid mind ; 
and if so, then the credibility of all which it asserts 
respecting a future state, is established. And es- 



186 IMMORTALITY 

pecially may we admit this, when it falls in with 
the current of our moral nature. 

Moreover, what the light of nature could not do 
effectually, the gospel has done. It has given au- 
thority and awful sanction to the doctrine of a 
future state ; such as never could exist without it. 
Who that duly considers this, will not look up to 
the great and glorious Author of the gospel, with 
unfeigned gratitude and thankfulness ? The mere 
child in Christian lands, now knows more fully, 
and believes with more assurance, that the soul is 
immortal, than Socrates, Plato, or Cicero did. 
Hear what Cicero makes his respondent say, in his 
first book of Tusculan Questions. The Roman 
philosopher had referred his Collocutor to the 
Phaedo of Plato, as containing arguments sufficient 
to establish the existence of the soul after the 
death of the body. The Collocutor replies : I know 
not how it is, hut so it is, that while I read, I give my 
assent ; but when I have laid aside the book, and be- 
gin to reflect upon the immortality of the soul by my- 
self, all my assent glides away. So, no doubt, it 
was with most of the minds of the heathen. They 
had variable, indistinct, unimpressive notions of a 
future state. They saw it by twilight. They 
looked to ratiocination to establish it; but they 
could find none which did not, at least sometimes, 
seem capable of being contradicted. Consequently 
their convictions were not, in general, of a solid 
and lasting nature. It is after all, then, "the glo- 
rious gospel of the blessed God," which "has 
brought life and immortality fully to light." 



OF THE SOUL. 187 

§3. Examination of Cicero's arguments for the im- 
mortality of the soul. 
The way is now prepared for a review of Cice- 
ro's ratiocination. It will be necessary, in general, 
to make only a brief statement ; for I may now 
refer to what has already been said, as the test by 
which I should desire the weight of his arguments 
to be examined. 

1. His first argument is, that the gods, both su- 
perior and inferior, were once human beings or 
men ; and as ail allow their present existence, they 
must of course allow the continued existence of 
the soul after death ; § 10. 

It is unnecessary to make any remark on this 
argument, except merely, that it could avail, of 
course, only as an argumentum ad hominem. Those 
who believed in the immortal existence of the gods, 
that once were men, could not reject the conclu- 
sion, that the soul exists after death. 

But while we may admit the ingenuity of this 
appeal, how can we help deploring that moral 
state, in such a man as Cicero, which could admit 
the idea of a plurality of gods ; and of gods, who 
in their origin were merely human ? 

2. It is a law of our nature to believe in, or to 
anticipate, a future state; §§ 11, 12. 

Here the very essence of the evidence in regard 
to a future state, is in some measure developed by 
the Roman philosopher. But observe how much 
in the twilight he is, with respect to it. He illus- 
trates it by saying, that when we grieve for the 
dead, we grieve at their deprivation of the comforts 
of life ; and that when men engage in great and 



188 cicero's arguments 

glorious undertakings, it is with reference to future 
fame, and implies some sensation of it after death. 
And this is all : not a word of the judgment to 
come; of accountability ; of heaven or hell. The 
gospel must needs throw light on these things, in 
order that they should be fully developed. But 
still, who does not feel himself delighted, that some 
sparks of immortal fire are here emitted ? The 
image of God within the human breast does here 
exhibit, although in a manner indistinctly, some of 
its true features. It is a lovely image, even in 
obscurity. 

3. Self-motion, i. e. spontaneous action, is the 
third argument of Cicero, in favour of his position. 
The power of self-motion, he says, cannot be traced 
to any external cause. It exists in and of itself; 
and therefore it must have always existed, and will 
always exist ; § 19. 

But this proves a great deal too much. It 
proves, that souls were not created, but are self- 
existent and eternal ; a thing which, on other oc- 
casions, neither Cicero admits, nor Plato, from 
whom he has directly quoted the whole argument. 
It never can be shewn, that Cod cannot create a 
free-agent, i. e. a being which possesses spontaneity 
of action. 

4. The powers of the soul, its native knowledge, 
its capacity for improvement, its memory, its faculty 
of invention and unlimited acquisition and investi- 
gation, shew that it is like the gods in its origin 
and nature. What it executes in art, poetry, ora- 
tory, philosophy, and the like, helps to confirm this 
same truth; §§20—22. 

It cannot be denied, that there is some weight 



EXAMINED. 189 

in nil this. All nature discloses benevolent design, 
on the part of its Creator. For what purpose has 
the Divinity given such (walled powers to man? 
The beasts reach the highest point of which their 
limited nature is capable. Man only begins to de- 
velope himself, in the present world. Is he then 
the most imperfect of all created things, in regard 
to the full development of his powers? It is diffi- 
cult to believe this, and yet to maintain the doctrine 
of henevolent design. It would seem, that there 
must he another state of 'being, where this develop- 
ment can he more fully completed. 

5. The soul is a simple, unmixed substance ; not 
concrete ; consequently it is not material, and not 
subject to dissolution; §23. 

But this is a petitio principii. The substance of 
the soul, it may be satisfactorily shewn, is not ma- 
terial. But to prove that it is simple and unmixed — 
how can this be done, unless we become experi- 
mentally acquainted with the nature and properties 
of spiritual substance or essence ? As this is im- 
possible, so such an acquaintance is out of question. 
And even if we could establish the position, that 
the soul is of simple element; how could we prove 
that a simple element may not undergo some 
change, analogous to the death or dissolution of 
the body ? 

It is manifest, therefore, that this whole argu- 
ment is a petitio principii. 

6. From the works of creation and providence 

we argue the existence of the gods, as immortal 

beings ; from similar works, then, we may conclude 

that man, as to his nature, is like to them ; § 24, seq. 

There is something so attractive and delightful 

9* 



190 cicero's arguments 

in what Cicero says upon this point, that I cannot 
forbear asking the reader to turn to the passage 
and reperuse it. I know not, in the whole com- 
pass of heathen writings, a passage so noble on the 
subject of the Godhead, as the one which the Ro- 
man philosopher here exhibits. What an admira- 
ble proof of the correctness of that which Paul has 
alleged, in the sublime and beautiful passage in 
Rom. I. 19, 20! 

But after all, the argument, merely as argument, 
is liable to exception. That our works are like 
those of the Divinity, does indeed prove resem- 
blance. But how will our present resemblance, in 
this respect, prove that our existence will be eter- 
nal ? I see no certain ground to conclude, that a 
being, which is in some respects like the Divinity 
at present, may not exist, and yet this existence be 
temporary. The probability is, indeed, highly in 
favour of his continued existence ; as may be seen 
by adverting to the fourth argument above exhib- 
ited. But the certainty we can hardly think to be 
capable of adequate proof, by considerations of this 
nature. 

Such are the principal considerations urged by 
Cicero, in favour of our continued existence after 
the death of the body. It is a remarkable circum- 
stance, and a most deplorable one too, that through- 
out his whole dissertation, the Roman philosopher 
scarcely adverts to the distinction in a future state, 
between the righteous and the wicked. The apos- 
tle states such a belief as one of the first principles 
of religion, and as standing by the side of the great 
truth, that there is a God: "He that cometh to 
God, must believe that he is, and that he is the re- 



i MINED. 191 

warder of those who diligently seek him." And who 
air the diligent seekers ? The righteous, surely. 
But what is to become of ihe wicked, then, i.e. 
those who do not seek him? The implication 
necessarily is, that they are to receive punishment. 

Indeed this must he regarded as one of the ele- 
mentary principles of all religion. Men may differ 
about the time, and manner, and measure of retri- 
bution to the wicked ; but the fact itself, none but 
atheists can consistently deny. 

Yet plain and important as the doctrine of retri- 
bution in a future state is, when the existence of 
the soul is once granted, Cicero does not appear 
to have directed many of his thoughts toward it. 
My impression from a frequent perusal of his whole 
treatise on the soul, is, that he took it for granted, 
that all men of a tolerably decent character will 
be happy in another world. Now T and then he 
adverts to the punishment of the wicked ; but he 
seems to mean, by them, only persons of a most 
profligate and debased character. 

Near the commencement of his dissertation, he 
holds the following conversation with his Collocu- 
tor : " M. Quid, si [animae] maneant ? A. Beatos 
esse, concede" And what Cicero makes his re- 
spondent here say, viz., that if the soul does survive 
the body, it will be happy, this author seems, in all 
parts of his treatise, to have taken for granted. 

One passage, however, shews, that when he thus 
speaks, he has such characters in view as have 
been, on the whole, what he deems to be virtuous. 
The passage to which I refer is in § 25. p. 48, seq. 
The substance of it is, ' that Socrates taught the 
doctrine, that there are two ways in which souls 



192 

go, when they depart from the body. Those " qui 
se humanis vitiis contaminavissent, et se totos libi- 
dinibus dedi dissent, quibus caecati ; vel domesticis 
vitiis atque flagitiis se inquinavissent ; vel repub- 
lica fraudes inexpiabiles concepissent ; to these 
there is a devious path to be trodden, and one 
which leads away from the council of the gods. 
But to those who had been upright and chaste ; to 
such as had contracted the least possible contagion 
from their bodies, and had always been prone to 
abstract as it were the soul from them ; to those 
who, during their physical life, had studiously imi- 
tated the gods ; to all such an easy return would 
be granted to that upper world from which they 
originally came.' 

To this sentiment of Socrates and Plato, the 
Roman philosopher seems to yield his entire ap- 
probation ; " nee vero de hoc quisquam dubitare 
potest." Yet all important as such a sentiment is, 
in the light of moral retribution ; and infinitely in- 
teresting as this retribution is to every individual ; 
it seems to have had but little practical influence 
or interest in the mind of Cicero. Once only, in 
his whole dissertation, has he distinctly brought it 
to view, as above stated. Every where else he 
seems to go upon the ground, that if we exist at all 
after death, we shall of course be happy. Yet I 
doubt not, that justice requires us to consider him 
as speaking, in all such cases, of those whom he 
deems to be reputable and virtuous. 

How immeasurably different ail this is from tho 
tenor of the gospel, must be evident even to the 
most superficial reader. There, a judgment to 
come ; a reward of every man according to the 



EXAMINED. 193 

a done in the body ; a heaven and a hell ; are 
the all-absorbing, all-important topics. " Knowing 
the terrors of the Lord," the Christian preachers 
wciv lad M to persuade men." But the philosopher 

at. the bead of heathen Rome, scarcely makes any 
of these matters a subject of thought ; certainly not 
rious interest How true the exclamation of 
the Psalmist: "The entrance of thy word giveth 
light ; it giveth understanding to the simple !" And 
equally true, the asseveration of Paul : " The world 
by wisdom knew not God." 

Cicero, after the brief account of Socrates' views 
given above, quits the subject, without once ad- 
verting to the surprising, and (I think we may 
truly say) revolting, [ivfrog, which Socrates, or 
rather Plato, introduces near the close of the 
Phaedo, in order to shew the future condition of 
the soul. We can scarcely doubt, that Cicero 
considered the whole of it as a mere play of the 
imagination. There is one passage, however, in 
which he has disclosed to us what kind of a heaven 
for the soul he did suppose to exist ; and it is a 
deeply interesting matter to learn, how the mind of 
an enlightened and philosophizing heathen could 
and did think on such a subject. 

The sum of his views may be found in § 16, and 
is as follows : ' Whether we allow the soul to be 
fire, or air, or melody, or the fifth principle of Aris- 
totle, it is obvious that it is lighter and more buoy- 
ant than the moist atmosphere which surrounds 
the earth. On the death of the body, it must of 
course mount upwards, until it reaches the etherial 
regions, which are tempered like itself; and there, 
as in equilibrio, it stops, and dwells in the upper 



194 

sphere among the stars, and is nourished by the 
same etherial aliment which supports them.' 

Such is the provision for the future abode of the 
soul, and its continued existence; an evident ad- 
vance, and a great one, upon the fiv&og of Socrates 
and Plato, as exhibited in the Phaedo. But what 
are its state, its occupations, its enjoyments ? They 
may be summed up in two things; (1) Freedom 
from corporeal appetites and passions. (2) The 
boundless and endless pursuit and attainment of 
knowledge. 

The first of these considerations, in Cicero's 
mind, sprung, no doubt, from the moral principle 
which belongs to the soul, and which longs after 
something that will raise it above carnal and phys- 
ical appetites and pleasures. In this, we recognize 
an irradiation from the eternal light that beams 
above. The second consideration originated from 
the unquenchable thirst which Cicero felt, and 
every kindred soul must feel, for pursuing the 
acquisition of knowledge, through ages that have 
no end. "If the gods," said Lessing, '' should 
make me the offer of the actual knowledge of all 
things, I must decline the boon ; should they proffer 
me the eternal and successful pursuit of it, I would 
accept it with the highest gratitude." In this sen- 
timent we may discern the same feelings, which led 
Cicero to represent his heaven as consisting mainly 
in the pursuit of knowledge. The society of the 
great and virtuous he does indeed reckon as one 
ingredient in the cup of future blessedness ; but 
the enjoyment of even this, consists principally in 
receiving and communicating knowledge. 

How many a Christian face should be covered 



EXAMINED. 195 

with Mushes, to see t heathen outstrip most persons 
in such noble desires! Paul could say : *Jf©W we 
know in pari . . . but then shall we sec and know, 
even as \vc arc seen and known." And the He- 
brew prophet could say: " Then shall we know, if 
we follow on to know the Lord." And while Paul 
and this prophet, and all others enlightened as 
they were, expected tbe joys of heaven to be some- 
thing more and higher than those which consist in 
the acquisition of knowledge ; yet they by no means 
underrate the pursuit of this. It was doubtless 
viewed by them, as it in fact is, as one of the means 
by which we approximate to a greater likeness 
with the omniscient Author of our being. 

To be freed from sin — all sin, either of thought, 
word, or deed — to be holy, to be like God, to love 
him, and serve him, and praise him, and thank 
him, forever and ever, is, after all, the most essen- 
tial part of the Christian's heaven. But here Cicero 
did not sympathize with the Christian. He had no 
knowledge, such as the Bible gives, of the only 
living and true God. The gods whom he wor- 
shipped, had once been men ; or if we may suppose 
him to have risen above this, in his speculations, 
(as he sometimes appears to do), still holiness as 
developed in the Scriptures, was not .an object of 
his contemplation. The gods w r ith whom he hoped 
to reside, were of a mixed, I might say of an atro- 
cious, character. Hence he does not once think of 
heaven, as a place where moral resemblance to them 
is the grand point of happiness. Truly, we may 
say once more : " Life and immortality are brought 
to light in the gospel !" 

We have now seen what kind of a heaven the 



196 

highest speculations of reason, without a Revela- 
tion, will form. It will scarcely be pretended, that 
Cicero is not as favourable an example of this na- 
ture, as can be selected from the whole heathen 
world. He has evidently improved upon the spec- 
ulations of Plato and Socrates. And after all, 
what is there in his Elysium, which will bear any 
comparison at all with the heaven which the Bible 
discloses ? 

We come next to the objections against the doc- 
trine of immortality, which Cicero discusses and 
answers. 

In §§ 13 — 18, he introduces and descants upon 
the objection, which is raised by asking the ques- 
tion : * How and where does the soul exist ? ' As 
to the place of its existence, what has already been 
said, discloses his views. In regard to the ques- 
tion, How do souls exist in a future state ? he says, 
very rightly, that this can serve the objector no 
good purpose ; for if the question be asked : How 
do souls exist in our present state, in union with 
the body ? it is just as difficult to answer this, as it 
would be to answer the objector's question ; nay 
even more so, inasmuch as the body is a kind of 
heterogeneous tenement for them, alien from their 
real nature. 

Then again, he suggests, we may just as well 
ask how the gods exist ; whom all do allow to exist. 

More to the purpose are the objections raised by 
Panaetius, §27, seq. These are, (1) The soul is 
procreated ; therefore it may be destroyed. The 
evidence that it is procreated, lies in the resem- 
blance of children to their parents. (2) The soul 
can be affected with grief and pain ; and that 



EXAMINED. 197 

which can thus be affected, must be perishable in 
its nature. 

To the first of these objections he replies, that 
most of the similitude arises from mere physical 
conformity ; and even where there is a like dispo- 
sition of mind, it springs, in a great degree, from 
similar external circumstances and from physical 
similitude. Then again, there are multiplied cases 
of entire dissimilitude of disposition, between pa- 
rents and children, which would afford equal proof 
of the contrary proposition. 

The second objection he answers, by stating that 
all the passions of grief, vexation, fear, anger, etc., 
must be predicated merely of the body and the 
animal soul ; but not of the intellectual and rational 
soul, which is wholly free from all such emotions ; 
§28. 

On this we may remark, that it is clearly a pe- 
titio principii, borrowed from the speculations of 
Plato, respecting the transcendental and immuta- 
ble nature of the soul. That this cannot be estab- 
lished by argument or proved by a priori consid- 
erations, we have already seen. 

Such then is the treatise of Cicero, on the im- 
mortality of the soul. Such is the highest point, 
to which reason (unenlightened by revelation) did 
attain, in the heathen world. " The world by wis- 
dom knew not God ;" it is equally true, that they 
did not know themselves. 

The rest of Cicero's dissertation, from § 27 to the 
end, consists of various considerations, designed to 
shew that we ought not to fear death. ! It is effem- 
inate to cherish such fears ; the great and good 
have always despised it ; it is a deliverance from 



198 cicero's arguments 

innumerable and intolerable evils ; it introduces us 
to the society of the great and good ; it frees us 
from fleshly passions and infirmities ; it is a small, 
thing in itself, and has been rendered terrible only 
by the exaggerations of the poets ; and finally, if it 
is the extinction of being, it is no evil, because it 
delivers us from all suffering ; if it be not an ex- 
tinction, it must be a great good.' 

Such are the considerations, by which one of 
the greatest men who ever adorned the heathen 
world, labours to cheer himself and his friends, 
when looking forward to the hour of dissolution. 
Are they props on which we can lean ? Are most 
of them any thing more than the result of a Sto- 
icism, which appears in a higher measure still, 
among the Aborigines of our western wilds ? God 
be thanked, that the Christian, while walking 
through the dark valley of the shadow of death, 
has a rod and a staff to lean upon, which will hold 
him up in a very different manner! Who can 
bring the example of a moral triumph in a dying 
hour, on the part of a heathen ? The death of 
Socrates comes the nearest to it, of any thing I 
have ever read or heard. Yet this falls immeasur- 
ably short of such a triumph as the humblest 
Christian may enjoy. All the darkness of the 
heathen system seems to be concentrated about 
the dying bed of a heathen ; while all the glories 
of the upper world are opened upon the dying 
Christian. 

One question more remains of deep and affect- 
ing interest. To what height of assurance or con- 
fidence, did the hope of a heathen that he should 
exist and be forever happy beyond the grave, ever 
arise ? 



EXAMINED. 199 

Interesting as this question is, the manner in 
which Cicero philosophizes, makes it difficult to 
arrive at a satisfactory conclusion, in respect to his 
real subjective conviction. The Athenian schools 
of philosophy, as is well known, became, in several 
of their branches, quite inclined to skepticism. 
The Epicureans and Acatalepties, in particular, 
were of this character ; and generally, the later 
Platonists were inclined to admit only subjective 
certainty, as the result of inquiry and argument, 
without undertaking to decide that any thing was 
objectively certain. This skeptical position of mind 
they honoured with the names of modesty and diffi- 
dence ; and they held that any thing aside from 
this, savoured of dogmatism and arrogance, and 
was unworthy the name and office of a philosopher. 

Cicero takes great pains to confine himself, as to 
the general tone of his discussions, within the 
boundaries w T hich the later Platonists had pre- 
served to themselves ; and which, indeed, Socrates 
himself seems to have not unfrequently commend- 
ed by his example. Thus, near the commence- 
ment of his discussion (in § 1), Cicero, in reply to 
his Collocutor, who requests him to shew that 
death is not an evil, says : " I will unfold this mat- 
ter, according to the best of my ability ; yet not 
like the Pythian Apollo, so that what I may utter, 
will be certain and established ; but like a man of 
small capacity, one of the multitude, seeking out 
by conjecture the things that are probable." This 
we might well put merely to the score of modesty, 
and regard the writer as designing simply not to 
raise great expectation in the reader, provided the 
passage were the only one of its kind. But this is 
not the case, 



200 

In § 4, after recounting various opinions respect- 
ing the sou], he says: "Which of all these opin- 
ions is the true one, let some god determine ; which 
is the most probable, is a great question." So then 
probability was all he expected to arrive at, by his 
inquiries. Understood in one way, this might in- 
deed be all that we need to ask for, on the ground 
of satisfactory assurance; but construed in another 
and philosophic way, it would seem to amount 
merely to a subjective conviction or balance of the 
mind, on the whole, in favour of the doctrine that 
the soul is immortal. 

That Cicero alternated between the first and sec- 
ond of these states of mind, is altogether probable. 
In § 9, he makes his Collocutor request him to 
prove, that the soul survives the death of the body. 
Cicero replies, that Plato has already done this in 
such a way as admits of no improvement. The 
respondent then says (as before quoted), that 'he 
knows not how it is ; yet such is the fact, that 
whenever he is reading Plato [the Phaedo], he 
gives his assent ; but when he lays it aside, and 
begins to meditate on the immortality of the soul, 
the arguments seem to glide away from him.' Was 
not this Cicero's own case ? And does he not 
make known to us a very common state of his own 
mind, in developing that of his Collocutor? I 
cannot doubt that such is the fact. In the midst 
of the perpetual hurry and confusion of business, 
in which Cicero was nearly all his life engaged, he 
could think but very little of Plato's Phaedo, or of 
any other arguments of the like nature. But when 
he was exiled from the forum and the Senate, and 
dared not mingle with the distinguished citizens of 



^iiM'i). 201 

the capital, in order to enjoy their Bociety, then he 

turned inwards upon himself, and began seriously 
to consider what he was, and whither he was go- 
ing. The result of tins consideration he lias set 

be f ore us, in the delightful treatise which has giv- 
en occasion b marks. 

Once more, let iia see how the fashion of the 
times wrought upon his mind, in regard to the 

expression of his convictions. In § 36, he gives us 
a long extract from the speech of Socrates to the 
judges, who had condemned him to death. In this 
speech Soeral that 'whether death be the 

end of our being, or not, it is deliverance from 
great evil, and altogether desirable.' After giving 
such a turn to his discourse as to show, that his 
predominant belief was in a continued existence, 
the Athenian philosopher subjoins: "But it is time 
for me to go hence, in order that I may die ; for 
you, that you may live : yet which of these is best, 
the immortal gods know, but no man can well de- 
cide." "Nothing," says Cicero, "in his whole 
speech, is better than this." This same writer 
afterwards subjoins, however, a hint in what man- 
ner we are to understand declarations of this na- 
ture, by such men as Socrates and Cicero. " As 
t to what he [Socrates] says," adds Cicero, "viz. 
that no one besides the gods knows which would 
be best, this same thing he himself does know ; for 
he had already affirmed it. Nevertheless he abides 
by his own maxim even to the last, which was, to 
make no categorical assertions." 

Such, I would hope, was the case wkh Cicero ; 
in particular, during the latter part of his life. My 
meaning is, that I would hope his belief was more 



202 cicero's arguments 

firm and abiding, than his expressions at times 
would seem to indicate. The noble passage at the 
close of the present treatise, would seem to develope 
a state of mind like to that which he ascribes to 
Socrates ; although, like this philosopher, he is 
careful to avoid all categorical assertions. The 
passage is in § 42, and runs thus : We did not come 
into being without some purpose ; we did not spring 
from chance ; but there was some Power, who exer~ 
cised an oversight respecting the human race, JVor 
would such a Poiver bring that into being, or continue 
to support it, ivhich, when it had endured so many 
labours, should sink down in everlasting death. No ; 

THERE IS SOME HAVEN OF REST, SOME ASYLUM 
PREPARED FOR US. 

It is delightful to think, that there were times, 
when the mind of Cicero could rise to such an ap- 
parent degree of assurance as this. That such was 
really the fact, would seem probable, from his occa- 
sional declarations in regard to the sufficiency and 
strength of the argument to prove the immateriality 
and immortality of the soul ; for he united these 
indissolubly together. In §25 he says: "Whether 
the soul is igneous, or aerial, matters nothing as to 
the object now in view. At present you must I 
simply consider, that as you know the existence of I 
a God to be certain, although you are ignorant ofl 
his dwelling-place and of his appearance ; so thef 
existence of your own soul ought to be considered! 
as a matter of certainty, although you know nothingl 
of its dwelling-place or its form." He then goesl 
on to say, that "unless we are absolutely leaden in I 
physics, we must acknowledge that there is in thel 
soul nothing mixed, concrete, copulate, augmented,! 



EXAMINED. 203 

or duplicate ; and consequently, that the soul can 
neither he separated, divided, cut in pieces, nor 
torn asunder; and therefore it cannot perish." 

It matters not, whether the argument will ahide 
the test of philosophy at the present day. Plain- 
ly it will not; as there can he no proof a pri- 
ori, that a simple substance may not he temporary, 
as well as a compound one ; nor can we prove in 
the way ot* ratiocination simply, that the soul may 
not die as well as the bod}', although in entirely a 
different way. Enough that Cicero expresses 
himself without any doubt, in regard to the point 
in question. A man must be, in his estimation, 
absolutely a leaden-headed fellow (plumbeus), to 
believe that the soul is otherwise than immaterial 
and imperishable. 

So in § 19 ; after producing the argument of 
Plato respecting the spontaneous motion of the 
soul, as establishing its eternity, he says, that 'al- 
though all the plebeian philosophers, (for so he may 
call all those who differ from Socrates and Plato), 
should join together, they could never produce any 
thing so elegaut and so acute as this.' Hence he 
concludes, that 'as the mind is self-moved, it is 
never deserted by itself. Hence too, it follows 
that it is eternal.' 

Once more ; in § 24, after that most noble pas- 
sage which argues, from the works of creation and 
providence, the existence of a Creator and Govern- 
or of all things, Cicero subjoins: "So the soul of 
man, although you do not see it, (and in like man- 
ner you do not see God), yet, as you acknowledge 
the being of a God, from the consideration of his 
works, so you should acknowledge the divine en- 



204 

ergy of the soul, from its memory, invention, celer- 
ity of motion, and every kind of virtue adorned 
with beauty." 

After considering these and the like passages, in 
Cicero's works, we cannot doubt, that in the hour 
of cool reflection and sober argument, he had an 
overwhelming conviction of the reality of a future 
existence ; although in his sportive or skeptical 
hours he might act, and probably did act, the part 
which he assigns to his Collocutor. That he ex- 
presses "himself occasionally in a manner somewhat 
partaking of cryJipig, may, on the whole, be fairly 
put to the same account, as that to which he as- 
signs the seemingly skeptical expressions of So- 
crates. 

See now, as a confirmation of this, the manner 
in which he expresses himself, when, looking away 
from philosophical argument, his mind was filled 
with other views and other sympathies. In his 
Cato Major or De Senectute, where he endeavours 
to defend old age against the objections made to 
it, he labours, near the close of the treatise* to shew 
that the certain nearness of death is no valid objec- 
tion. His reason is, that death is no evil ; for the 
soul is immortal, and will survive the body, and be 
happy. When speaking of the various powers 
and capacities of the soul, he says, in the conclu- 
sion : " It is not possible that what contains such 
divine powers, should be mortal." After recapitu- 
lating, very briefly, a great part of the arguments 
used in the first book of the Tusculan Questions, 
in favour of the immortality of the soul, he thus 
exclaims in view of a future state: "O praeclarum 
diem, cum ad illud divinum animorum concilium 



EXAMINED. 205 

coetumque proficiacar, cumque ex hae turba et col- 
luviooe discedam ! Proficiscar, cnini, non ad eos 
solum viros, de quibus ante dixi ; set etiam ad Ca- 
tonam meum,quo nemo vir melior natus est, nemo 
pietate praestantior." 

He moans, that he shall, after death, be with 
( Jato Major, whose body he had burned, but whose 
soul was gone to the world of spirits. This Cato, 
whom Cicero so highly valued, lived to a very old 
age : retained the full vigour of his faculties, so as 
udy Greek at the age of eighty; and was a 
remarkable example of cheerfulness and happiness, 
in the decline of life. On this account, Cicero 
gives his treatise on old age the title of Caio Major. 

Thus we see, that " God has not left himself 
without witness." Even among the heathen, he 
has enstamped his own image upon our nature. But 
while we cheerfully and gratefully recognize this 
truth, it is equally plain, on the other hand, that 
perverse as men are, and estranged from God, this 
image has been distinctly discerned by very few, 
who were not enlightened by revelation. Even 
those who have seen it most clearly, have not been 
able to free themselves from doubts and fears. It 
must be so. More light is needed, to afford an 
overwhelming conviction to minds darkened like 
ours. Simple, unperverted, unadulterated reason, 
might be well satisfied that the soul is immortal ; 
but where is such reason to be found among the 
heathen ? A revelation, therefore, was needed, in 
order to confirm and impress this great truth. 

We rise, then, from the perusal of Cicero's au- 
reus libellus, with gratitude to God, that he has so 
made human minds, as to emit, in every condition, 
10 



206 

some sparks of the celestial fire of which they are 
composed. We thank him that the heathen were 
prompted to look upwards, and to long and sigh 
after immortality. But our souls should overflow 
with still higher gratitude, so often as we call to 
mind that the path of happiness is now made plain ; 
that light from heaven is beaming with full radiance 
upon it; that life and immortality are erought 

TO LIGHT IN THE GOSPEL. 



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